Reference: "Made in America", Chapter 3 - Laurie Olsen
As I did with my last post, I will pick a few quotes that really stood out and why I chose those particular quotes for this blog.
1) "So for us, school is just, you come to classes and you just sit there. And if you sit there long enough, after four years they give you a diploma...we just don't matter." (pg. 60) - As a future teacher and someone who really values education, this is tough to read. I cannot say that I totally relate to this statement but there were times in high school, even though I was at least being challenged by my teachers and I had a good array of activities and friends, I did feel like I was just a number. I went to a school of 4100 students, and it was difficult not to get lost in that sea of people. I think that the problem in schools of that size and of a lot of schools in general is that the teachers just do not have the time or resources to provide the amount of individualized attention that their students so desperately need. This goes especially for the ESL students who need more attention and more help with their studies and everything else. It broke my heart that they did not even like being in school and just wanted to get their diploma and leave. At the same time, I was glad that they actually wanted to graduate, which I feel is a bit pathetic in my opinion. Students should want to graduate to pursue higher education or pursue a career, not just graduate to graduate. I think another problem these students face is the issue of higher education. Even though I am an avid supporter of more education, students who do not want to go to college should not be forced to and vice versa. Do not count a student out that has potential, like Madison did with Juanita. That was completely terrible. The poor girl got into one of the best colleges in California let alone the country and did not have the money to go. These things just should not happen.
2) "We don't think of ourselves as white until someone makes us think of ourselves as white." (pg. 70) - I think this pretty much solidified everything that this book has been talking about so far. This same student also said "We make ourselves racial" (pg. 70). Unfortunately, the world is not a perfect place as we all seem to think it is at times depending on our background. As I have said before, I come from an upper middle class, mostly white town where everyone is pretty privileged and I have to admit that about myself. I think that it is true that we do not have to apologize for being white. We do not have to apologize for being born into that environment and being raised the way we are, just like they do not have to apologize for being raised the way they are, as well. I try to be culturally conscious and politically correct as much as humanly possible, but it is human nature to criticize. It surprised me how much those students were aware of such pressing issues in our society. It recalls my own parents saying, 'Just because we're white does not mean we shouldn't be considered for financial aid' when I was applying to colleges. I worked myself very hard in high school and put in a lot of effort and belonged to clubs and activities so that I could go to college. While my parents did have some money stored away, I feel that a very small percent does not just have the money to go to college. That is where affirmative action has its pitfalls. I am happy that they are helping people go to college who otherwise would not be able to, but at the same time is that not privileging others? It brings about the issue of fairness in society. I know I should not gripe about something I do not fully understand, but it aggravates me sometimes that people who I know do not work as hard as me and do not even care that they are in college waste their scholarship money and financial aid to just party and fail out. Obviously, the school does not know that's going to happen, but financial aid should not be based on ethnicity. It should be based on need, like it says it is supposed to be. Students everyone should be treated equally and accolades should be given to those who deserve it most and not have to worry about offending anyone in the process.
3) "Many U.S.-born students feel that 'immigrants are given everything'; the Latinos feel that newly arrived immigrants are pulling them down" (pg. 79) - I think that these feelings stem from inexperience in that realm of understanding. Immigrants are definitely given opportunities and especially international students attending universities are given a lot of money and probably deserve it because they work hard to get here. I think people need to remember yet again that people who move here are not moving here to "take over", they are moving here for a better life and for better prospects. I think I would prefer to live somewhere where there is no genocide and no political strife and I as well as my family could receive more benefits. Everyone on earth deserves to be happy, healthy and have a roof over their head no matter what. I am not exactly sure what the Latino students mean by newly arrived immigrants pulling them down; I guess maybe it means that they work really hard to gain a reputation and to assimilate in society and then the new students come, do not speak a lot of English and maybe these Latino students feel obligated to help them when all they want to do is fit in with the other students in the school. One cannot exactly blame them for wanting to learn English and to assimilate as best as they possibly can. However, while they should not feel obligated, they should probably at least have some desire to help students just out of the goodness of their heart, not so much obligation. They should remember that they probably felt the same way when they moved here, and to sympathize with them a little.
4) "Students in the 'high' college-preparatory classes and students in the 'low skills' classes...feel a sharp sense of identity tied to those placements" (pg. 82) - Believe me, I have totally been here. I have many friends who have been here and that is why I chose this quote. I was in the Honors/AP track in high school, but I was not there at first. I was in academic track until my freshman year of high school when one of my teachers finally told me, 'Kelsey, you need to be challenged. I am recommending you for honors.' I had to prove myself at first to everyone else in the class, because I had not been with most of them before. I was friends with a lot of them already but at the same time I still felt pressured to become like them. Eventually, my only friends were people in the honors track and I had pretty much forgotten my old friends from the academic track and I still feel pretty guilty about that. I think in retrospect I was being snobby and I still feel like I do that sometimes. I have my moments where I think, 'oh well, they do not know that, they must be stupid' and it is really terrible of me to think these things, but I was conditioned into it. I had some really amazing, brilliant teachers in high school and I cannot say that I am unhappy that their teaching has influenced me greatly in my life. At the same time, the low skills or remedial students feel like they are being pressured to not do well in school and therefore not go on to college, which we do not want either. We still want them to try, but they feel burdened by their peers and by their teachers (sometimes inadvertently) to stay in the low skills track. That is where teachers and administration need to come in and have high expectations. If we do not have high expectations for them, they will not have them for themselves.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Observation Week 1: Feb 21 and 23
For my practicum experience, I am doing some hours at Heartland Community College in two Reading 3 ESL courses. The level for these courses is intermediate to intermediate-high English skills and the course objectives are to give students a better understanding and insight into reading academic English; according to Sue, the instructor, the students read some novels like "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Giver" to enhance their English reading and discussion skills. Both of the classes are adults; the ages range from around 22 to about 40 in both classes, and the backgrounds of students vary as well. Most students are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, or Asiatic countries like China and Japan, among a few scattered other countries like Iran, Morocco, and Russia.
I noticed in my general observations for this week that the teacher exhibits a lot of the behavior that one would expect from an ESL teacher, which I found very interesting because I was talking with Sue (my cooperating teacher) and she does not have an ESL background. She actually worked at Heartland for about 4 years as a English reading and writing tutor and they ended up hiring her to teach some courses. I would never know that she did not have any background in it because she works so well with them! She exhibits such great teacher talk and behavior; she is really comfortable with the students and the students seem like they really respect her and value her opinion. They are all very talkative and very willing to participate in discussion; I was glad to see that there was a lot of laughter and joking around with the teacher, and an excellent rapport has clearly been established. Something I noticed right away as well was that Sue has an English-only policy in her classroom. Some of the students in the night course I am observing are very prone to talking in French (their native language), and she squelches that right away, saying "I don't hear English over there, remember what I told you guys the first day of class?" and the students immediately went back to talking in English, but they lapsed back into it again. Sue also is very good at praising her students and encouraging them to talk when they are too quiet' she tends to call on a random student and ask what they think of the question, and says things like, "Oh well (blank), I know you are really good at conjugating verbs. what do you think the answer is?" She makes jokes a lot, and gets them laughing so that they will talk more and feel more comfortable.
I also observed that some students are really inclined to talk in their native language with people that also speak their native language, which of course is an obvious behavior that one would expect in an ESL classroom. Since they are adults and in a college setting, she does not do much to stop it because she admitted that she does not want to treat them like high school students. She does keep an eye on them during class and does the typical teacher method of proximity to get the talking to stop, which is always a good non-invasive classroom management method. Sue does a lot of paraphrasing as well when she speaks, which we all know as ESL teachers we need to do with our students, no matter what age. She also listens very patiently when they are answering a question and then comments on their answer, saying, "Oh, you mean 'this'? Yes, that is very close, but I think maybe you meant..." or "So you're saying that..." and helps guide their answers to fit what she is looking for.
The students in Reading 3 use a reading textbook and a lot of the textbook are based on TOEFL examples and common activities; this class also seems to do a lot of error correction in order to ensure that their grammar improves along the way. I was pretty impressed because they seemed to know a lot of the proper names for grammar terms, like past participle and past tense, among others. I felt like I did not know any of that until at least high school, unless I learned it in grammar school and it is my native language so it is basically inherent for me. She also handed back their quizzes; I thought this quiz was really comprehensive and extensive. The quiz was divided into 1) vocabulary, where they had match words to definitions, and 2) syllable stress of the words. Even I had to think about it and I speak English! I think it is hard for us as native speakers to break things down to such a basic level; I feel like that about Spanish too sometimes when I have to identify a specific verb conjugation. I have been studying it for 10 years and now it is my second language. It is such an eye-opening experience to see how difficult English is to learn. The students complained every now and then about the weird grammar rules that we have, and I totally agree with them. Every language seems easy in comparison!
As for my upcoming observations, I will be looking at classroom management skills, teacher talk, what type of metholodgy the teacher uses, among many other concepts.
I noticed in my general observations for this week that the teacher exhibits a lot of the behavior that one would expect from an ESL teacher, which I found very interesting because I was talking with Sue (my cooperating teacher) and she does not have an ESL background. She actually worked at Heartland for about 4 years as a English reading and writing tutor and they ended up hiring her to teach some courses. I would never know that she did not have any background in it because she works so well with them! She exhibits such great teacher talk and behavior; she is really comfortable with the students and the students seem like they really respect her and value her opinion. They are all very talkative and very willing to participate in discussion; I was glad to see that there was a lot of laughter and joking around with the teacher, and an excellent rapport has clearly been established. Something I noticed right away as well was that Sue has an English-only policy in her classroom. Some of the students in the night course I am observing are very prone to talking in French (their native language), and she squelches that right away, saying "I don't hear English over there, remember what I told you guys the first day of class?" and the students immediately went back to talking in English, but they lapsed back into it again. Sue also is very good at praising her students and encouraging them to talk when they are too quiet' she tends to call on a random student and ask what they think of the question, and says things like, "Oh well (blank), I know you are really good at conjugating verbs. what do you think the answer is?" She makes jokes a lot, and gets them laughing so that they will talk more and feel more comfortable.
I also observed that some students are really inclined to talk in their native language with people that also speak their native language, which of course is an obvious behavior that one would expect in an ESL classroom. Since they are adults and in a college setting, she does not do much to stop it because she admitted that she does not want to treat them like high school students. She does keep an eye on them during class and does the typical teacher method of proximity to get the talking to stop, which is always a good non-invasive classroom management method. Sue does a lot of paraphrasing as well when she speaks, which we all know as ESL teachers we need to do with our students, no matter what age. She also listens very patiently when they are answering a question and then comments on their answer, saying, "Oh, you mean 'this'? Yes, that is very close, but I think maybe you meant..." or "So you're saying that..." and helps guide their answers to fit what she is looking for.
The students in Reading 3 use a reading textbook and a lot of the textbook are based on TOEFL examples and common activities; this class also seems to do a lot of error correction in order to ensure that their grammar improves along the way. I was pretty impressed because they seemed to know a lot of the proper names for grammar terms, like past participle and past tense, among others. I felt like I did not know any of that until at least high school, unless I learned it in grammar school and it is my native language so it is basically inherent for me. She also handed back their quizzes; I thought this quiz was really comprehensive and extensive. The quiz was divided into 1) vocabulary, where they had match words to definitions, and 2) syllable stress of the words. Even I had to think about it and I speak English! I think it is hard for us as native speakers to break things down to such a basic level; I feel like that about Spanish too sometimes when I have to identify a specific verb conjugation. I have been studying it for 10 years and now it is my second language. It is such an eye-opening experience to see how difficult English is to learn. The students complained every now and then about the weird grammar rules that we have, and I totally agree with them. Every language seems easy in comparison!
As for my upcoming observations, I will be looking at classroom management skills, teacher talk, what type of metholodgy the teacher uses, among many other concepts.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
2/29 Reading
References: "Made in America", Intro through Chapter 2
First off, "Made in America" is a very eye-opening book. I had heard good things about it from the other practicum students from last semester, and I can definitely tell that they are right. What I really liked about this book is that the author picked a very common, normal high school where these problems are rampant. The comments that people make in this text are just appalling at times, heart-breaking at others. I know that I come from a very middle America, white background and my slightly conservative Italian/Polish family thinks I am a bit of an alien for caring so much about racial and ethnic issues; when my parents make comments about other races and I catch myself making comments without thinking, I have to cringe. It is really difficult to break out of that thinking when you have experienced it for so long! I think we just have ideas engrained into our heads from birth, and I know especially when I came into college, I have grown exponentially every year in personal and intellectual development.
I thought that this book was very thoroughly researched and by a woman who does an excellent job in explaining her point of view. I think that she picked the perfect people to interview for this book, because they say so many things that we have learned about in our TESOL classes and really prove that this country has a long way to go. In Chapter 1, the author mostly describes the makeup of the community in California where the book takes place, and then described how the changes occurred by way of looking at the past yearbooks for the high school. I thought this was a very telling way to demonstrate how the diversity in the community has changed over the decades. It gives the reader a great overview of the political and social climate of this California community.
In this post, I am going to choose a few specific quotes from this book that really stuck out to me, and explain why I chose them.
1) "...there had been some student who had taken off his turban because he couldn't take the pressure anymore" (pg. 39). The students in the ESL classes that the author observed used this as a metaphor for being forced to assimilate to American culture. It is amazing that the students have pressured someone so much that they have to remove something that makes them different from everyone else. It brings to memory a moment when I was talking to my dad about my ESL classes when I began taking them, and he said jokingly and fondly to me, 'How did I ever get such a tolerant daughter?'. My parents grew up in the 60's and 70's, a hugely important and changing environment in the United States; the Civil Rights Movement was in full force. My grandparents grew up in the 30's and times were even more different then! My parents had grown up with religious and ethnic intolerance, and that was all they knew. The Civil Rights Movement shook everything to the core with them and they learned how to assimilate to a newer society. I wish that people would take cues from these movements in history and learn that people are not what the media portrays them to be. No one is a stereotype.
2) "Skin color, religion, and language seem to define being 'American' or not" (pg. 40). Whoa. This is a singularly strong statement and probably stuck out the most to me out of this book so far. It surprises and enrages me to a certain extent. What does being American even mean? I honestly do not know! I feel that we are such a rapid-fire, ever-changing society in which fads come and go in like a week. I feel that students coming in from other countries see us from the media as well. When I was talking to a friend that I know here from Malaysia, he said that he thought Americans were all basically hillbillies like he saw on television from old reruns; he said that he was also surprised at the amount of diversity that exists here. He said that in Malaysia, he only saw TV and media about white, middle-class America and did not realize the amount of African-American people that lived here and the racial categories that exist in this country because of it. They are under the same delusions (for lack of a better word) that we are under about their countries. We do not have a clue about what goes on in the outside world; our media only covers local or regional news at best. European countries get news from every single country in the world! We are only aware of what exists in our little bubble and it saddens me that everyone seems perfectly fine with that.
3) "Most Americans like free time...they go outside and have fun. I always see most immigrant people in the library because they sit and study there. They want to do good in school" (pg. 48-49), and also "I can't believe that Americans have very good conditions about education but they don't want it" (pg. 49). Believe me, this is totally preaching to the choir for me. I cannot believe every day at the amount of people (even at this university!) who completely take education for granted. I am always a person who approached school as something of utmost importance and I take it very seriously. I often do not allow myself to have fun as much as I want to because I feel a huge responsibility to do well. Most people when I was growing up thought I was 'weird' or a 'freak' because I wanted to read all the time and not be as social as everyone else, but honestly, it did me good in the long run. I met people in high school who were exactly like me and could relate to my feelings, and all of my immediate and close group of friends are all almost college graduate and about half are going on to graduate school. We have fun as much as anyone else, but we all understand how serious school work is. I do not think high schools do a good job of emphasizing the importance of education; I was extremely lucky that I grew up in a wealthy community with a great deal of resources, but others are not so lucky. The fact that teachers take school for granted too is appalling.
4) The table on page 57 of "Reasons we immigrated" and "Things we think they think about why we're here" (they meaning Americans). I feel like this list, including, work, political strife, economy...these are all things we have discussed in previous TESOL classes as reasons for students and their families coming here. I think that all American students should be shown this list and we should tell them, 'What you guys think about them is not true!' How are we supposed to blame a baby for wanting to take a job? It makes no sense. We should be proud that people want to come and live in this country, not be blaming them for wanting a better life. You do not exactly see people from the USA moving to the Congo or Serbia and there are clear reasons why. We do not get the same freedoms we do here and people think it is shocking that that stuff goes on in the world, but as I said, we live in a bubble. We are so lucky to be native Americans. Why not help people out when they get here? We're socialized into thinking that the US is the best country ever in existence and not to question what those society values are and why. I only have done that in college. I know when I am a teacher, I am going to copy this list and show it to my students. Even if I am the only person giving them awareness, at least I am making them aware at all. It's increasingly important in this changing climate to promote tolerance and acceptance in our classrooms.
First off, "Made in America" is a very eye-opening book. I had heard good things about it from the other practicum students from last semester, and I can definitely tell that they are right. What I really liked about this book is that the author picked a very common, normal high school where these problems are rampant. The comments that people make in this text are just appalling at times, heart-breaking at others. I know that I come from a very middle America, white background and my slightly conservative Italian/Polish family thinks I am a bit of an alien for caring so much about racial and ethnic issues; when my parents make comments about other races and I catch myself making comments without thinking, I have to cringe. It is really difficult to break out of that thinking when you have experienced it for so long! I think we just have ideas engrained into our heads from birth, and I know especially when I came into college, I have grown exponentially every year in personal and intellectual development.
I thought that this book was very thoroughly researched and by a woman who does an excellent job in explaining her point of view. I think that she picked the perfect people to interview for this book, because they say so many things that we have learned about in our TESOL classes and really prove that this country has a long way to go. In Chapter 1, the author mostly describes the makeup of the community in California where the book takes place, and then described how the changes occurred by way of looking at the past yearbooks for the high school. I thought this was a very telling way to demonstrate how the diversity in the community has changed over the decades. It gives the reader a great overview of the political and social climate of this California community.
In this post, I am going to choose a few specific quotes from this book that really stuck out to me, and explain why I chose them.
1) "...there had been some student who had taken off his turban because he couldn't take the pressure anymore" (pg. 39). The students in the ESL classes that the author observed used this as a metaphor for being forced to assimilate to American culture. It is amazing that the students have pressured someone so much that they have to remove something that makes them different from everyone else. It brings to memory a moment when I was talking to my dad about my ESL classes when I began taking them, and he said jokingly and fondly to me, 'How did I ever get such a tolerant daughter?'. My parents grew up in the 60's and 70's, a hugely important and changing environment in the United States; the Civil Rights Movement was in full force. My grandparents grew up in the 30's and times were even more different then! My parents had grown up with religious and ethnic intolerance, and that was all they knew. The Civil Rights Movement shook everything to the core with them and they learned how to assimilate to a newer society. I wish that people would take cues from these movements in history and learn that people are not what the media portrays them to be. No one is a stereotype.
2) "Skin color, religion, and language seem to define being 'American' or not" (pg. 40). Whoa. This is a singularly strong statement and probably stuck out the most to me out of this book so far. It surprises and enrages me to a certain extent. What does being American even mean? I honestly do not know! I feel that we are such a rapid-fire, ever-changing society in which fads come and go in like a week. I feel that students coming in from other countries see us from the media as well. When I was talking to a friend that I know here from Malaysia, he said that he thought Americans were all basically hillbillies like he saw on television from old reruns; he said that he was also surprised at the amount of diversity that exists here. He said that in Malaysia, he only saw TV and media about white, middle-class America and did not realize the amount of African-American people that lived here and the racial categories that exist in this country because of it. They are under the same delusions (for lack of a better word) that we are under about their countries. We do not have a clue about what goes on in the outside world; our media only covers local or regional news at best. European countries get news from every single country in the world! We are only aware of what exists in our little bubble and it saddens me that everyone seems perfectly fine with that.
3) "Most Americans like free time...they go outside and have fun. I always see most immigrant people in the library because they sit and study there. They want to do good in school" (pg. 48-49), and also "I can't believe that Americans have very good conditions about education but they don't want it" (pg. 49). Believe me, this is totally preaching to the choir for me. I cannot believe every day at the amount of people (even at this university!) who completely take education for granted. I am always a person who approached school as something of utmost importance and I take it very seriously. I often do not allow myself to have fun as much as I want to because I feel a huge responsibility to do well. Most people when I was growing up thought I was 'weird' or a 'freak' because I wanted to read all the time and not be as social as everyone else, but honestly, it did me good in the long run. I met people in high school who were exactly like me and could relate to my feelings, and all of my immediate and close group of friends are all almost college graduate and about half are going on to graduate school. We have fun as much as anyone else, but we all understand how serious school work is. I do not think high schools do a good job of emphasizing the importance of education; I was extremely lucky that I grew up in a wealthy community with a great deal of resources, but others are not so lucky. The fact that teachers take school for granted too is appalling.
4) The table on page 57 of "Reasons we immigrated" and "Things we think they think about why we're here" (they meaning Americans). I feel like this list, including, work, political strife, economy...these are all things we have discussed in previous TESOL classes as reasons for students and their families coming here. I think that all American students should be shown this list and we should tell them, 'What you guys think about them is not true!' How are we supposed to blame a baby for wanting to take a job? It makes no sense. We should be proud that people want to come and live in this country, not be blaming them for wanting a better life. You do not exactly see people from the USA moving to the Congo or Serbia and there are clear reasons why. We do not get the same freedoms we do here and people think it is shocking that that stuff goes on in the world, but as I said, we live in a bubble. We are so lucky to be native Americans. Why not help people out when they get here? We're socialized into thinking that the US is the best country ever in existence and not to question what those society values are and why. I only have done that in college. I know when I am a teacher, I am going to copy this list and show it to my students. Even if I am the only person giving them awareness, at least I am making them aware at all. It's increasingly important in this changing climate to promote tolerance and acceptance in our classrooms.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
2/22 Readings
References: Cary Chapters 9 and 10
Chapter 9, "How do I support a student's first language when I don't speak the language?", addresses a very pertinent issue in ESL classrooms. When we enter the classroom environment, we generally do not know the student's other language; I feel quite fortunate that I speak Spanish because that is the majority of the language minorities (not really even a minority anymore!) speak this language, but I do not speak Hmong or Chinese or Arabic, so I feel like it is a daunting task to have to know these other languages in my classroom. I worried about how I make comparisons between languages when I do not even know the structure of that native language. I feel like I would be doing my students a disservice in that case.
However, upon reading the article, it gave me so many awesome ideas to incorporate in my future classroom. I LOVED the idea of the teacher (Dolores) having her students present their culture and language in front of the class and teaching them the three-set phrase (hello, please, thank you) and then putting it up on the walls so that students could look at them. "Because Vietnamese was honored and because Nguyet and all of us have so much of our identity tied to what we speak and how we speak it, honoring Vietnamese honored and validated Nguyet" (pg. 138). It is such a great idea to incorporate that native language and make them proud of their heritage instead of focusing on English-only programs. I also thought the class newspaper idea was really cool and innovative; I've heard of this sort of project in mainstream classroom settings in elementary schools, but never before in an ESL classroom. I think it really brings home the idea that ESL students can do whatever mainstream students do if we just give them the opportunity to do it! The other teacher called Dolores' classroom "loosey-goosey" because it did not follow strict rules or regulations, but to me, if it works for the class, then it works. Every teacher is different, just like the students. If the students respond to rules and a strict schedule, then great; if they do not, then we have to work with them to find out what is going to work best in the classroom. I would rather my students learn than be bored, which I am pretty sure everyone else feels about teaching.
"Students who develop a strong foundation in their primary language in multiyeared bilingual programs consistently outperform second language learners in all English programs" and have an "economic advantage: proficient bilinguals were the 'prize hires' in an increasingly competitive global market" (pg. 137-138). I think this statement sums up everything that I try to advocate about bilingual and ESL education to everyone I talk to. The whole Prop. 227 in California issue and English-only programs get me so angry because people who run them are being ignorant; if they would just see what schools are doing and look at the research, maybe they would stop focusing on wanting to be the language majority and being superior to seeing that language brings people together and facilitates international cooperation. It can only help us, not hinder us.
Chapter 10, "How do I minimize communication conflicts in a multilingual classroom?" addresses the issue of students having conflicts as a result of their communication and as a result of their cultural differences in speech and how they rationalize and handle issues. I was just surprised to see that the students were just so mean to each other, like the one kid saying "Chopstick Boy" and "reinforced it with a mocking laugh" (pg. 148), and that the students were teasing their classmates about "their English pronunciation and jumbled syntax" (pg. 14). I guess maybe I was under the delusion that the students would be helping each other and would cooperate and that was how an ESL classroom worked in my mind. I was just shocked to see that they were not cooperating well at all with each other and I was curious to see how the teacher would fix that problem because obviously having conflicts can result in a very chaotic classroom and interfere with daily classroom life. At first I thought the teacher's PowerPoint presentation was a great idea but at the same time was not surprised entirely to see it bomb. The students are not going to listen to a presentation when the evidence is in front of them; they need to actually cooperate and experience art as a collaborative process and work through that to make art or a project memorable.
I think the teacher in this vignette's first mistake was that he let them group themselves in what the book refers to as "ethnic enclaves" (pg. 150). I know this happens in every school no matter if the students are ESL or not; I know in my high school at home this happened all the time since the groups who were considered 'minorities' really were minorities: my high school was about 88 percent Caucasian, and that was about as diverse as you could get as far as European related backgrounds, and plus the economic divide in my town added to the separation factor. I think teachers (especially ESL ones) need to take these factors into consideration. I think if I was an ESL teacher in his position, I would try to group them by who I know are actually friends or cooperate well together, or maybe cultures that do not have some historical negative context with the other, like Israeli and Pakistani students because that could end up pretty badly until they get accustomed to each other. The teacher's job is to feel the situation out and make sure they are making the right decisions for that particular context. He definitely made it better by grouping them by "two different primary languages and several had students from three different language backgrounds" (pg. 151), because then the students cannot rely on their first language and have to use English to get their task accomplished. That was a good strategy.
Also, giving them the option to pick an artist they all liked and were interested in helps the group collaborate more on the project, and gives them specific ownership over it which all teachers want their students to have. We do not want to be the ones forcing them to do every single thing in the classroom! We want them to have some say in the matter. As the book says, it was also very important that Toby "cared enough to deal with them as individuals and not embarrass them in front of their peers" (pg. 153), which we all know junior high and middle school students are HUGELY self-conscious and they do not want to be embarrassed. We want them to do things that they feel proud of and be confident in their products, and who belongs to their group makes a difference in that respect as well. They need to be working with people that they feel comfortable with, and this helps their presentation and research go much more smoothly.
Chapter 9, "How do I support a student's first language when I don't speak the language?", addresses a very pertinent issue in ESL classrooms. When we enter the classroom environment, we generally do not know the student's other language; I feel quite fortunate that I speak Spanish because that is the majority of the language minorities (not really even a minority anymore!) speak this language, but I do not speak Hmong or Chinese or Arabic, so I feel like it is a daunting task to have to know these other languages in my classroom. I worried about how I make comparisons between languages when I do not even know the structure of that native language. I feel like I would be doing my students a disservice in that case.
However, upon reading the article, it gave me so many awesome ideas to incorporate in my future classroom. I LOVED the idea of the teacher (Dolores) having her students present their culture and language in front of the class and teaching them the three-set phrase (hello, please, thank you) and then putting it up on the walls so that students could look at them. "Because Vietnamese was honored and because Nguyet and all of us have so much of our identity tied to what we speak and how we speak it, honoring Vietnamese honored and validated Nguyet" (pg. 138). It is such a great idea to incorporate that native language and make them proud of their heritage instead of focusing on English-only programs. I also thought the class newspaper idea was really cool and innovative; I've heard of this sort of project in mainstream classroom settings in elementary schools, but never before in an ESL classroom. I think it really brings home the idea that ESL students can do whatever mainstream students do if we just give them the opportunity to do it! The other teacher called Dolores' classroom "loosey-goosey" because it did not follow strict rules or regulations, but to me, if it works for the class, then it works. Every teacher is different, just like the students. If the students respond to rules and a strict schedule, then great; if they do not, then we have to work with them to find out what is going to work best in the classroom. I would rather my students learn than be bored, which I am pretty sure everyone else feels about teaching.
"Students who develop a strong foundation in their primary language in multiyeared bilingual programs consistently outperform second language learners in all English programs" and have an "economic advantage: proficient bilinguals were the 'prize hires' in an increasingly competitive global market" (pg. 137-138). I think this statement sums up everything that I try to advocate about bilingual and ESL education to everyone I talk to. The whole Prop. 227 in California issue and English-only programs get me so angry because people who run them are being ignorant; if they would just see what schools are doing and look at the research, maybe they would stop focusing on wanting to be the language majority and being superior to seeing that language brings people together and facilitates international cooperation. It can only help us, not hinder us.
Chapter 10, "How do I minimize communication conflicts in a multilingual classroom?" addresses the issue of students having conflicts as a result of their communication and as a result of their cultural differences in speech and how they rationalize and handle issues. I was just surprised to see that the students were just so mean to each other, like the one kid saying "Chopstick Boy" and "reinforced it with a mocking laugh" (pg. 148), and that the students were teasing their classmates about "their English pronunciation and jumbled syntax" (pg. 14). I guess maybe I was under the delusion that the students would be helping each other and would cooperate and that was how an ESL classroom worked in my mind. I was just shocked to see that they were not cooperating well at all with each other and I was curious to see how the teacher would fix that problem because obviously having conflicts can result in a very chaotic classroom and interfere with daily classroom life. At first I thought the teacher's PowerPoint presentation was a great idea but at the same time was not surprised entirely to see it bomb. The students are not going to listen to a presentation when the evidence is in front of them; they need to actually cooperate and experience art as a collaborative process and work through that to make art or a project memorable.
I think the teacher in this vignette's first mistake was that he let them group themselves in what the book refers to as "ethnic enclaves" (pg. 150). I know this happens in every school no matter if the students are ESL or not; I know in my high school at home this happened all the time since the groups who were considered 'minorities' really were minorities: my high school was about 88 percent Caucasian, and that was about as diverse as you could get as far as European related backgrounds, and plus the economic divide in my town added to the separation factor. I think teachers (especially ESL ones) need to take these factors into consideration. I think if I was an ESL teacher in his position, I would try to group them by who I know are actually friends or cooperate well together, or maybe cultures that do not have some historical negative context with the other, like Israeli and Pakistani students because that could end up pretty badly until they get accustomed to each other. The teacher's job is to feel the situation out and make sure they are making the right decisions for that particular context. He definitely made it better by grouping them by "two different primary languages and several had students from three different language backgrounds" (pg. 151), because then the students cannot rely on their first language and have to use English to get their task accomplished. That was a good strategy.
Also, giving them the option to pick an artist they all liked and were interested in helps the group collaborate more on the project, and gives them specific ownership over it which all teachers want their students to have. We do not want to be the ones forcing them to do every single thing in the classroom! We want them to have some say in the matter. As the book says, it was also very important that Toby "cared enough to deal with them as individuals and not embarrass them in front of their peers" (pg. 153), which we all know junior high and middle school students are HUGELY self-conscious and they do not want to be embarrassed. We want them to do things that they feel proud of and be confident in their products, and who belongs to their group makes a difference in that respect as well. They need to be working with people that they feel comfortable with, and this helps their presentation and research go much more smoothly.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
2/15 Readings
References: Cary, Chap. 6 and 7
Chapter 6, "How do I help students improve their English writing?" offered up some really good advice between first and second year of teaching strategies and of course addressed how the teacher (Victor) engaged his ESL students in the writing process in a very real and practical way. I myself am a really big proponent of practical education and engaging the students in problem-solving activities, as many people who have read my teaching philosophy or have pretty much generally heard me talk about education would know. I think the important thing that Victor did with his lesson was that he "tried to prepare his early intermediate- and intermediate-level students for disappointment" (pg. 80) and told them that they may not get a response from the Mayor right away or even ever. I feel like a teacher really does need to be honest with their students and they need to understand that, when engaging the real world, life is not all positive and that they may be faced with rejection. I know that I did not learn that early enough in my schooling!
What is great about writing this letter to the mayor is that it gets the students actively involved in their life at school and gives them a connection and a sort of possession factor. The traffic light outside the school was not working and parents had been struck by vehicles which I think we all can agree is a huge issue. Obviously, there needs to be some sort of a stop sign or traffic light by the school and I am kind of surprised there would not be one, considering laws for slowing down near schools, but I digress. Victor started off his lesson by recording "student ideas, 'Things we want the mayor to know'" (pg. 81) on the board and having students brainstorm ideas for the letter. It gets the students involved in the process and lets them know that they have a voice, which I feel that ESL kids do not always get that positive reinforcement in the classroom where they only do busy work and grammar exercises. Victor facilitated their ideas by paraphrasing and offering up suggestions, like when Okti was trying to describe a traffic light, he waited patiently for her to finish and then offered up what he thought she was trying to say. Students should be encouraged to speak and not have their ideas squashed because as we know with foreign language, if we feel that we are going to be wrong, we are definitely not going to speak. Another important aspect of this lesson was that Victor "reminded everyone that they would be making lots of writing errors" (pg. 82); even I as a native speaker make errors when I write, so the kids should not feel as if they have to be perfect in their second language writing. They need to know that they acquire language slowly and it can take a while to acquire certain grammar points, especially ones that do not occur in their native language.
The point of this chapter, to me, was getting the kids to have a purpose to their writing, and according to Cary, "it makes sense to turn to the people who know the most about writing: real writers" (pg. 84). Having people from the community get involved with the lessons is an invaluable resource for the students. It shows them that they have a say in what goes on in their community and they can feel like a part of it, because many ESL kids tend to feel isolated and left out when it comes to decision-making especially when they are young. Giving them a concrete reason to write (and a somewhat emotional reason as well) gives them the drive to achieve something from their writing and I feel that many teachers will see progress in that area if they do lessons like Victor did here.
Chapter 7, "How do I teach grade-level content to English beginners?" addressed the issues of the ELD approach in the classroom and bringing content and real-life application into the classroom environment, as well. Joellen, the teacher in this vignette, went to her principal armed with ideas for making her classroom a better place; she knew that in the past, "the programs had been heavy on pronunciation practice and grammar-based worksheets" (pg. 94) and that the students certainly needed more than that to achieve their goals in the second language. I suppose the fortunate thing in Joellen's case was that her principal, Ms. Tessier, was extremely understanding to Joellen's plight and even offered to help her implement her ideas into the classroom. Other teachers are not so lucky; they are often left to their own devices and get no support from their administration. This occurs way too often in the education world in every content area, not just ESL. Obviously Ms. Tessier might have had some background in that area and understood what it took to help the students achieve, which is something we all should hope for in our administration and our colleagues.
I just wanted to say that I absolutely loved this shoebox archaeology idea; I am definitely writing it down and making that into a lesson for my Spanish or my ESL kids in the future. Since Joellen's students were studying California History in their fourth grade class, she decided to have them have artifacts from the era of settlement and the "interaction between Native American and settler groups" (pg. 96). She used her resources; she bought some artifacts online for cheap and asked the school if they had anything for her to borrow when teaching. I think another good idea I could do with a lesson like this is take them to a museum that has an exhibit of this topic and have students explore it on their own and see what life was like back then, and maybe get a real world connection that way, as well, but that certainly depends on school budget and other things like that. Another great aspect of Joellen's lesson was her use of the show and tell model - she created her own demonstration and had students watch her very carefully. She showed them how to use all the tools for the excavation, and how to clean the artifact when they unearthed it. She asked them questions like "What are you seeing...feeling...smelling..." (pg. 97) in order to engage their senses, and trying to prompt them to get involved in the experience. Some students will certainly react right away while others may not; that depends on their proficiency, but getting the hands-on experience of actually digging the artifact and having some pride that they have done this will give them the motivation to continue researching.
Something really cool that evolved from this lesson was the spirited discussion the students had about their artifacts once they had done all of their research. I loved the "before research" and "after research" sheets Joellen did with the class, because it shows them how far they have come in learning about the history of their artifacts and students need that connection to the object. When she did the discussion, the students got really upset about the killing of the buffalo and one student even said that "it was 'possible' that Team Three's bullets killed one of those 60 million buffalo" (pg. 100). I was so surprised that the kids were making such solid connections like that to history! It is what any teacher from any content area can hope for; the students getting engaged and forgetting that they are in school. I know we do not want students to think that school is tedious and, as Cary says, boring. The unfortunate truth is that there is not enough support from administration and lawmakers to make our ESL dreams happen, so to speak, and that the "kids practiced second language but rarely used it for real communication" (pg. 102). It is really sad that there are not more teachers like Victor and Joellen who get their students involved. It is a daunting and time-consuming task, but certainly the rewards are great.
Chapter 6, "How do I help students improve their English writing?" offered up some really good advice between first and second year of teaching strategies and of course addressed how the teacher (Victor) engaged his ESL students in the writing process in a very real and practical way. I myself am a really big proponent of practical education and engaging the students in problem-solving activities, as many people who have read my teaching philosophy or have pretty much generally heard me talk about education would know. I think the important thing that Victor did with his lesson was that he "tried to prepare his early intermediate- and intermediate-level students for disappointment" (pg. 80) and told them that they may not get a response from the Mayor right away or even ever. I feel like a teacher really does need to be honest with their students and they need to understand that, when engaging the real world, life is not all positive and that they may be faced with rejection. I know that I did not learn that early enough in my schooling!
What is great about writing this letter to the mayor is that it gets the students actively involved in their life at school and gives them a connection and a sort of possession factor. The traffic light outside the school was not working and parents had been struck by vehicles which I think we all can agree is a huge issue. Obviously, there needs to be some sort of a stop sign or traffic light by the school and I am kind of surprised there would not be one, considering laws for slowing down near schools, but I digress. Victor started off his lesson by recording "student ideas, 'Things we want the mayor to know'" (pg. 81) on the board and having students brainstorm ideas for the letter. It gets the students involved in the process and lets them know that they have a voice, which I feel that ESL kids do not always get that positive reinforcement in the classroom where they only do busy work and grammar exercises. Victor facilitated their ideas by paraphrasing and offering up suggestions, like when Okti was trying to describe a traffic light, he waited patiently for her to finish and then offered up what he thought she was trying to say. Students should be encouraged to speak and not have their ideas squashed because as we know with foreign language, if we feel that we are going to be wrong, we are definitely not going to speak. Another important aspect of this lesson was that Victor "reminded everyone that they would be making lots of writing errors" (pg. 82); even I as a native speaker make errors when I write, so the kids should not feel as if they have to be perfect in their second language writing. They need to know that they acquire language slowly and it can take a while to acquire certain grammar points, especially ones that do not occur in their native language.
The point of this chapter, to me, was getting the kids to have a purpose to their writing, and according to Cary, "it makes sense to turn to the people who know the most about writing: real writers" (pg. 84). Having people from the community get involved with the lessons is an invaluable resource for the students. It shows them that they have a say in what goes on in their community and they can feel like a part of it, because many ESL kids tend to feel isolated and left out when it comes to decision-making especially when they are young. Giving them a concrete reason to write (and a somewhat emotional reason as well) gives them the drive to achieve something from their writing and I feel that many teachers will see progress in that area if they do lessons like Victor did here.
Chapter 7, "How do I teach grade-level content to English beginners?" addressed the issues of the ELD approach in the classroom and bringing content and real-life application into the classroom environment, as well. Joellen, the teacher in this vignette, went to her principal armed with ideas for making her classroom a better place; she knew that in the past, "the programs had been heavy on pronunciation practice and grammar-based worksheets" (pg. 94) and that the students certainly needed more than that to achieve their goals in the second language. I suppose the fortunate thing in Joellen's case was that her principal, Ms. Tessier, was extremely understanding to Joellen's plight and even offered to help her implement her ideas into the classroom. Other teachers are not so lucky; they are often left to their own devices and get no support from their administration. This occurs way too often in the education world in every content area, not just ESL. Obviously Ms. Tessier might have had some background in that area and understood what it took to help the students achieve, which is something we all should hope for in our administration and our colleagues.
I just wanted to say that I absolutely loved this shoebox archaeology idea; I am definitely writing it down and making that into a lesson for my Spanish or my ESL kids in the future. Since Joellen's students were studying California History in their fourth grade class, she decided to have them have artifacts from the era of settlement and the "interaction between Native American and settler groups" (pg. 96). She used her resources; she bought some artifacts online for cheap and asked the school if they had anything for her to borrow when teaching. I think another good idea I could do with a lesson like this is take them to a museum that has an exhibit of this topic and have students explore it on their own and see what life was like back then, and maybe get a real world connection that way, as well, but that certainly depends on school budget and other things like that. Another great aspect of Joellen's lesson was her use of the show and tell model - she created her own demonstration and had students watch her very carefully. She showed them how to use all the tools for the excavation, and how to clean the artifact when they unearthed it. She asked them questions like "What are you seeing...feeling...smelling..." (pg. 97) in order to engage their senses, and trying to prompt them to get involved in the experience. Some students will certainly react right away while others may not; that depends on their proficiency, but getting the hands-on experience of actually digging the artifact and having some pride that they have done this will give them the motivation to continue researching.
Something really cool that evolved from this lesson was the spirited discussion the students had about their artifacts once they had done all of their research. I loved the "before research" and "after research" sheets Joellen did with the class, because it shows them how far they have come in learning about the history of their artifacts and students need that connection to the object. When she did the discussion, the students got really upset about the killing of the buffalo and one student even said that "it was 'possible' that Team Three's bullets killed one of those 60 million buffalo" (pg. 100). I was so surprised that the kids were making such solid connections like that to history! It is what any teacher from any content area can hope for; the students getting engaged and forgetting that they are in school. I know we do not want students to think that school is tedious and, as Cary says, boring. The unfortunate truth is that there is not enough support from administration and lawmakers to make our ESL dreams happen, so to speak, and that the "kids practiced second language but rarely used it for real communication" (pg. 102). It is really sad that there are not more teachers like Victor and Joellen who get their students involved. It is a daunting and time-consuming task, but certainly the rewards are great.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
2/8 Readings
References: Cary, Chapters 4 and 5
Chapter 4, "How do I get my reluctant speakers to speak English?" focuses on a very important issue in the classroom; how will a silent student affect the entire class? It can be a very difficult thing for a class to deal with. If a student does not want to speak, then that will certainly affect the other students in the class and they may not want to speak as well and then you pretty much have anarchy on your hands. Of course, as teachers we do have to consider that students go through a Silent Period during their language acquisition process, but we have to know where that tends to begin and end and when it is appropriate to be concerned with their silence in the classroom. In Cathy's class, she had all native Spanish speakers and the chapter focused on how she got these students who were very scared or hesitant, to speak English in different contexts. Some of them were somewhat proficient while others "spoke a few word of English now and then, but only if directly encouraged by the teacher or a classmate" (pg. 53) which definitely tends to happen in the ESL classroom. They will not speak unless spoken to.
I think Cathy is a very enthusiastic and energetic teacher and she definitely tried her very best to find what interested her students, and then try to get them to talk about it. With Erica, she knew that she was interested in music and tried to have her talk about CD's, and when she came to the one with the violin on the cover, it was finally something she could relate to. I thought it was great that the teacher had her bring in her brother and do a little concert for the rest of the students, and then after that give a vocabulary lesson on music. It combined music and language and helped students make a connection to language in that context. With Gustavo, she knew he loved soccer and tried to get him to talk about soccer, but he did not seem to want to talk about it as much as she thought he would. She thought that talking about soccer would be "a good and handy route to English speaking" (pg. 55) and had the student teach the class about soccer, but that still did not seem to work which totally surprised me, but once she talked about the fact that it was mostly physical and did not require as much language she thought it would. Obviously, a teacher has to consider what is going to be best for a student and it was definitely a good idea to have him teach the class and give him some authority over his language, but we do have to remember to think things through and think about what the consequences of that authority will be, along with the makeup of the class.
I like very simple little analogies to things I am learning about, and this statement stuck out to me, giving students "time to talk and a reason to talk" (pg. 58) in the classroom. I think as teachers it is definitely a trial-and-error process and we have to learn more about our students to give them reasons to talk in the classroom. We have to give them multiple and varied opportunities like Cathy did with the plays, teaching a soccer lesson and listening to music. We have to delve a little into their personal lives to get through to them, and above that, when they are talking, let them talk. Give them the opportunity to speak or they will be hesitant to speak.
Chapter 5, "How do I make a difficult textbook more readable?" I found to be surprisingly emotional and how the students responded was even more thoughtful than I thought it would be. In Karen's class, even though she had a very diverse makeup, she was able to get through to them through her own personal experiences and storytelling. I thought it was really cool that she acted like a tour guide for the textbook, "her job was to lead students through the text chapter, pointing out the interesting and important sights along the way" (pg. 67) as well as pointing out important pictures and objects that would get the students talking or add to discussion. I think it is important how Karen used a lot of hand gestures and exaggerated facial expressions to get the point across to her students and I loved that she could laugh at herself. It takes a lot to develop a humorous rapport with your students, especially those in the ESL environment because they have a harder time understanding comedy and irony in the second language. I know I definitely do with Spanish; I am reading Spanish literature right now and it is really difficult to detect a joke or sarcasm when I am reading solely just to understand the text and understand the main plot points.
Karen, when talking to her students, uses a lot of summarization and paraphrasing to help get the point across for a difficult textbook; she says, "the text says in conclusion can gives us the important information in a few words" or "the middle is growing fast...the lower, the people with very little money..." (pg. 68) as she pulled bills out of her pockets, giving them that visual representation of the idea. Even though they were more advanced students, they still need that concrete evidence to understand the topic. The idea of money spurred some very interesting conversation within the class where they talked about their different societies, who was a farmer in their family, leading Karen to say, "So good schools and good jobs help people change social status?" (pg. 69) and I feel like the fact that they got to that point in the conversation was impressive for the students. I think that Karen did an excellent job in setting very high expectations for her students and facilitating that within her classroom.
When she was given a difficult textbook, she did not want to throw it away and sometimes some of us do not get that choice. Most of the time, schools require us to use a textbook and we just have to live with it, even if we do not like it whatsoever. I think Karen was really good at working around the difficult material and words with her use of paraphrase and summarization, along with her visuals and movements. It leads into the discussion of the pros and cons with having a textbook; if it is a great textbook and has a few flaws, we can work around it, but if the textbook is not beneficial to the student we have to work very hard to alter some activities and make them more relevant or useful to student life.
Chapter 4, "How do I get my reluctant speakers to speak English?" focuses on a very important issue in the classroom; how will a silent student affect the entire class? It can be a very difficult thing for a class to deal with. If a student does not want to speak, then that will certainly affect the other students in the class and they may not want to speak as well and then you pretty much have anarchy on your hands. Of course, as teachers we do have to consider that students go through a Silent Period during their language acquisition process, but we have to know where that tends to begin and end and when it is appropriate to be concerned with their silence in the classroom. In Cathy's class, she had all native Spanish speakers and the chapter focused on how she got these students who were very scared or hesitant, to speak English in different contexts. Some of them were somewhat proficient while others "spoke a few word of English now and then, but only if directly encouraged by the teacher or a classmate" (pg. 53) which definitely tends to happen in the ESL classroom. They will not speak unless spoken to.
I think Cathy is a very enthusiastic and energetic teacher and she definitely tried her very best to find what interested her students, and then try to get them to talk about it. With Erica, she knew that she was interested in music and tried to have her talk about CD's, and when she came to the one with the violin on the cover, it was finally something she could relate to. I thought it was great that the teacher had her bring in her brother and do a little concert for the rest of the students, and then after that give a vocabulary lesson on music. It combined music and language and helped students make a connection to language in that context. With Gustavo, she knew he loved soccer and tried to get him to talk about soccer, but he did not seem to want to talk about it as much as she thought he would. She thought that talking about soccer would be "a good and handy route to English speaking" (pg. 55) and had the student teach the class about soccer, but that still did not seem to work which totally surprised me, but once she talked about the fact that it was mostly physical and did not require as much language she thought it would. Obviously, a teacher has to consider what is going to be best for a student and it was definitely a good idea to have him teach the class and give him some authority over his language, but we do have to remember to think things through and think about what the consequences of that authority will be, along with the makeup of the class.
I like very simple little analogies to things I am learning about, and this statement stuck out to me, giving students "time to talk and a reason to talk" (pg. 58) in the classroom. I think as teachers it is definitely a trial-and-error process and we have to learn more about our students to give them reasons to talk in the classroom. We have to give them multiple and varied opportunities like Cathy did with the plays, teaching a soccer lesson and listening to music. We have to delve a little into their personal lives to get through to them, and above that, when they are talking, let them talk. Give them the opportunity to speak or they will be hesitant to speak.
Chapter 5, "How do I make a difficult textbook more readable?" I found to be surprisingly emotional and how the students responded was even more thoughtful than I thought it would be. In Karen's class, even though she had a very diverse makeup, she was able to get through to them through her own personal experiences and storytelling. I thought it was really cool that she acted like a tour guide for the textbook, "her job was to lead students through the text chapter, pointing out the interesting and important sights along the way" (pg. 67) as well as pointing out important pictures and objects that would get the students talking or add to discussion. I think it is important how Karen used a lot of hand gestures and exaggerated facial expressions to get the point across to her students and I loved that she could laugh at herself. It takes a lot to develop a humorous rapport with your students, especially those in the ESL environment because they have a harder time understanding comedy and irony in the second language. I know I definitely do with Spanish; I am reading Spanish literature right now and it is really difficult to detect a joke or sarcasm when I am reading solely just to understand the text and understand the main plot points.
Karen, when talking to her students, uses a lot of summarization and paraphrasing to help get the point across for a difficult textbook; she says, "the text says in conclusion can gives us the important information in a few words" or "the middle is growing fast...the lower, the people with very little money..." (pg. 68) as she pulled bills out of her pockets, giving them that visual representation of the idea. Even though they were more advanced students, they still need that concrete evidence to understand the topic. The idea of money spurred some very interesting conversation within the class where they talked about their different societies, who was a farmer in their family, leading Karen to say, "So good schools and good jobs help people change social status?" (pg. 69) and I feel like the fact that they got to that point in the conversation was impressive for the students. I think that Karen did an excellent job in setting very high expectations for her students and facilitating that within her classroom.
When she was given a difficult textbook, she did not want to throw it away and sometimes some of us do not get that choice. Most of the time, schools require us to use a textbook and we just have to live with it, even if we do not like it whatsoever. I think Karen was really good at working around the difficult material and words with her use of paraphrase and summarization, along with her visuals and movements. It leads into the discussion of the pros and cons with having a textbook; if it is a great textbook and has a few flaws, we can work around it, but if the textbook is not beneficial to the student we have to work very hard to alter some activities and make them more relevant or useful to student life.
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