Teaching Issues
The biggest problem I have noticed during my observations has been regarding the student’s prior knowledge. Building on student’s prior knowledge is an important part of teaching. Sometimes it is difficult because not all our students have had the same experiences. Unfortunately, this is an even bigger challenger with second language learners because even though they have prior knowledge to build on, they don’t know how to express it because of the language barrier. I feel like this problem is easily fixed simply by bringing in more pictures, videos, or hands on objects so that the students can associate them with the word/topic. Another problem I noticed was in regards to conducting the lesson in a small group. Even though the students are all level 1 ELL they still have a very broad range of skills. During this lesson the same students would point out the high frequency word every time. I felt like the ones that needed to learn it the most didn’t have a chance to look because the higher level students would find the word and point it out before the lower level student had a chance. I have also noticed this happening with other lessons as well. It seem like the students are all working together at the same time instead of them each getting their own chance to answer the question. This particular lesson might reach every one better if they took turns pointing out the word can on each page. This way only one student was looking at a time and you would be able to tell if they were getting it or not.
Second Language Acquisition/ Ethnographic Perspective
The ELL teacher has been working on the high frequency word can this week. The lesson today consisted of reading the Eric Carle book, From Head to Toe. Kindergarten high frequency words are something that the regular classroom teacher works on a lot but the ELL students need extra one-on-one help with them. The lesson was very appropriate for second language learners because it used a children’s book that repeated the high frequency word on every page. Mrs. Horton gave the students pointers (glittery unsharpened pencils) to use to find the word can on every page. The students LOVED using their pointers and responded well to the story. Mrs. Horton would read the page and then the students would use their pointers to find the high frequency word. She also would pull them into the story by asking if they could do what the animals and kids in the story were doing, like scratch their head or beat their chest. The students enjoyed this because they were actively participating in the story. The book chosen also had lots of wonderful pictures that portrayed the words so even if the students didn’t understand all of the words, they could figure out what was going on through the illustrations. Another thing I liked about the book was how much repetition it had in it. Repetition is great for young learners and especially ones who are second language learners. The phrase, “I can do it” was repeated at the end of every page. By the end of the story the children had memorized it and would track print while saying, “I can do it.”Also, there was a sentence strip with the word can that each of the students could hold during the story to remind them what they were looking for, I thought that this was very helpful to them. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like Mrs. Horton incorporated a lot of culture into the lesson. But I am sort of unclear as to how one would do that with this lesson. Perhaps next time the instructor could choose a multicultural book to use for the lesson.
Anna
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
SPSE 6810-Multicultural Education
When it comes to the topic of multicultural education, most of society would say that it is complicated. At least that’s the answer I have received many times when I have asked someone what they thought about it. I, however, would highly disagree with this. I think where we go wrong in education is that WE discuss multicultural education like it is an option, a suggestion, or even a chore. This is ridiculous. In fact, it is almost insulting that our society even has to come up with such a label as multicultural education. Shouldn’t our education system be multicultural anyway?
I remember taking a Day Care Perspectives class in undergrad and having to use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale to design a developmental appropriate preschool classroom. One of the criteria was that the classroom had to be multicultural and there were lots of ways to do this. For instance: the dramatic play center had to have clothing that represented different cultures, the kitchen center had to have food represented of different countries, the library had to have books about different cultures with characters of different races, etc. This was the first time that I realized how much we as educators could affect societies beliefs about multiculturalism. At first I thought this was a really good way to implement multicultural education; however, I noticed that it also taught stereotypes. The students assume that everyone in Asia wears a Kimono because that’s the outfit in the dress up center. Or, they assume that everyone who is Hispanic only eats tacos because that’s the food in the dramatic play center that represents them. I think that these stereotypes can very easily be avoided if we as educators take multicultural education a step further. It doesn’t just mean having things in the classroom to represent different cultures, it means TEACHING students how to appreciate and learn from different cultures. It’s important to have parents come into the classroom and tell stories about their cultures, their traditions, their lives. Have students bring in their family’s favorite foods and games.
Multicultural education isn’t just a word with a definition; it is an attitude, a choice: a choice to get to know someone else on a personal level and appreciate where they come from. This is how we influence society, we start with our students.
I remember taking a Day Care Perspectives class in undergrad and having to use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale to design a developmental appropriate preschool classroom. One of the criteria was that the classroom had to be multicultural and there were lots of ways to do this. For instance: the dramatic play center had to have clothing that represented different cultures, the kitchen center had to have food represented of different countries, the library had to have books about different cultures with characters of different races, etc. This was the first time that I realized how much we as educators could affect societies beliefs about multiculturalism. At first I thought this was a really good way to implement multicultural education; however, I noticed that it also taught stereotypes. The students assume that everyone in Asia wears a Kimono because that’s the outfit in the dress up center. Or, they assume that everyone who is Hispanic only eats tacos because that’s the food in the dramatic play center that represents them. I think that these stereotypes can very easily be avoided if we as educators take multicultural education a step further. It doesn’t just mean having things in the classroom to represent different cultures, it means TEACHING students how to appreciate and learn from different cultures. It’s important to have parents come into the classroom and tell stories about their cultures, their traditions, their lives. Have students bring in their family’s favorite foods and games.
Multicultural education isn’t just a word with a definition; it is an attitude, a choice: a choice to get to know someone else on a personal level and appreciate where they come from. This is how we influence society, we start with our students.
Anna
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
SPSE 6712-Observation #1
I have been working at Mitchell Neilson Primary for my fieldwork and am really enjoying it! They have a sort of special circumstance because they share the ELL teacher with the elementary school as well. This doesn’t give her a lot of time to spend with each student. However, she has the kindergarten students for an hour everyday so I go during that time. This is what I observed during that time:
Teaching/ Ethnographic Perspective
The purpose of the lesson that I observed was to work on the students letter recognition skills. The teacher gave each student a dry erase board and asked them to draw a sad face on one side and a happy face on the other. Then, she gave them each a sentence strip with their names on it. She would choose a letter from a set of index cards to show the students. If the letter was not in their name then it made them sad : ( and they had to write that letter on the sad side of their board. If the letter WAS in their name than they were happy : ) and they got to write it on the happy side of their board. I thought that the lesson was very appropriate for the students. For the ones that were very low level it was good that she gave them their name cards because they were still in the matching stage of letter recognition. However, I thought that for the higher level learners it would have been beneficial to take away their names cards to see if they could recognize its presence in their name from memory.
The students really seemed to respond to the activity well and enjoyed making very sad or happy faces once they found the letters. I also liked how the teacher did not put a lot of stress on the student’s letter formation. Many of them struggled with writing the letters correctly. She would simply show them once how to make the letter, allow them to try, and then praise them for their effort. I think this was really important for them not to get discouraged or give up trying. It will come with practice. An observer would hardly notice the ELL group that is pulled out in each Kindergarten room. The classrooms are fairly large and she always pulls her ELLs out at a time when the rest of the class is at their desks. This way, she can take her group to one of the centers that are blocked off and not disturb the class. Sometimes this strategy is frustrating because they have to be very quiet in their small group. They aren’t able to do certain activities like sing songs or play noisy games because they would disturb the class. The teacher is very inviting and accepting towards her ELL students. Even though she has them for a very short amount of time she always asks them how their day is going and gives them a chance to share their feelings. The students are all happy to see her and are excited about going to her group. She does a very good job of making them feel special that they get to come see her. They don’t feel excluded at all from the rest of their class.
Community
When the ELL teacher works with the kindergarteners she goes into one class at a time and pulls the ELL students to a quiet spot in the room. All of the classes have at least 3 ELLs so it makes for good sized small group instruction. While the activity was for each individual student to recognize the letters in their own name, the students would help each other look for the letters. They all seemed to get along and want each other to find the letters. One student even said, “I am sad there is no A in my name, but I’m happy it’s in yours!” I thought that was so sweet! Most of the ELL students the teacher pulls out in kindergarten are level 1 proficiency according to their ELDA scores. They are seen by the ELL teacher every day. However, there is one student that scored a 3 on the ELDA but will still qualify for consultation services from the ELL teacher because the language spoken at home is Arabic.
Teaching/ Ethnographic Perspective
The purpose of the lesson that I observed was to work on the students letter recognition skills. The teacher gave each student a dry erase board and asked them to draw a sad face on one side and a happy face on the other. Then, she gave them each a sentence strip with their names on it. She would choose a letter from a set of index cards to show the students. If the letter was not in their name then it made them sad : ( and they had to write that letter on the sad side of their board. If the letter WAS in their name than they were happy : ) and they got to write it on the happy side of their board. I thought that the lesson was very appropriate for the students. For the ones that were very low level it was good that she gave them their name cards because they were still in the matching stage of letter recognition. However, I thought that for the higher level learners it would have been beneficial to take away their names cards to see if they could recognize its presence in their name from memory.
The students really seemed to respond to the activity well and enjoyed making very sad or happy faces once they found the letters. I also liked how the teacher did not put a lot of stress on the student’s letter formation. Many of them struggled with writing the letters correctly. She would simply show them once how to make the letter, allow them to try, and then praise them for their effort. I think this was really important for them not to get discouraged or give up trying. It will come with practice. An observer would hardly notice the ELL group that is pulled out in each Kindergarten room. The classrooms are fairly large and she always pulls her ELLs out at a time when the rest of the class is at their desks. This way, she can take her group to one of the centers that are blocked off and not disturb the class. Sometimes this strategy is frustrating because they have to be very quiet in their small group. They aren’t able to do certain activities like sing songs or play noisy games because they would disturb the class. The teacher is very inviting and accepting towards her ELL students. Even though she has them for a very short amount of time she always asks them how their day is going and gives them a chance to share their feelings. The students are all happy to see her and are excited about going to her group. She does a very good job of making them feel special that they get to come see her. They don’t feel excluded at all from the rest of their class.
Community
When the ELL teacher works with the kindergarteners she goes into one class at a time and pulls the ELL students to a quiet spot in the room. All of the classes have at least 3 ELLs so it makes for good sized small group instruction. While the activity was for each individual student to recognize the letters in their own name, the students would help each other look for the letters. They all seemed to get along and want each other to find the letters. One student even said, “I am sad there is no A in my name, but I’m happy it’s in yours!” I thought that was so sweet! Most of the ELL students the teacher pulls out in kindergarten are level 1 proficiency according to their ELDA scores. They are seen by the ELL teacher every day. However, there is one student that scored a 3 on the ELDA but will still qualify for consultation services from the ELL teacher because the language spoken at home is Arabic.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Hooray for Methods Classes!!!! : )
I have learned many things in this class regarding inclusion, designer methods for teaching ESL, assessment tools, literacy development, and oral language tools. I am most interested in teaching younger student ESL classes. I noticed during my research on inclusion that several sources said that Inclusion was not the best program for newcomers or lower levels of proficiency. Because of this statement and because I will be teaching young ELL students, I don’t think that the Inclusion program will work effectively in my future classroom environment. I am interested in researching more about the self-contained model because I think that this program may be more appropriate for the age group I am interested in teaching.
There are several designer methods used to teach ESL; however, I found that I liked the Total Physical Response Method (TPR) the best.TPR was developed by James Asher and designed to mimic how infants learn their first language. Asher calls it a language conversation because the parent (or in this case the teacher) says something and the infant (or in this case the ELL) gives a physical response. The teacher will say an action word while demonstrating the action. This is then mimicked by the learner. The ELL will start by simply performing the action when the teacher gives the command while silently internalizing the patterns and sounds of the language. Eventually the student will be able to put the vocabulary/sound with the action. As the vocabulary becomes more difficult visual aids can be brought in to help portray meaning. This method would work best for young or beginner ELL in a self-contained classroom. This method is similar to how you would teach in early childhood classrooms. It uses visual aids and physical actions along with instruction to encompass all learning styles. In a younger classroom mostly all of the students learn best kinesthetically no matter what their native language is. TPR gives students an instant understanding of the target language with high speed long term retention in a low stress level environment.
During the course of the class I have also become familiar with assessment tools for ESL. I thought that when I used the SOLOM instrument it was much easier to assess the student. It breaks downs the categories very descriptively so I know exactly what I am looking for. I think that no matter what grade I teach in the future, the SOLOM instrument would work well. It does a more accurate job of defining what the student’s language is like and helps target what needs improvement. I would definitely use the SOLOM instrument in the future so that I can better assess the needs of my students.
I have also created and utilized so many wonderful tools in this class that I will be able to use in my classroom. For example, I can utilize cloze procedures to help my students with vocabulary and comprehension while using choral reading tools to aid in fluency development. At the moment, I would be the most comfortable with targeting reading fluency in my lessons. The key to reading fluency is modeling and practice. I can effectively help my students with reading fluency by continuously reading out loud to them on a daily basis. Reading to the students is one of my favorite parts of the school day. To be a good model for fluency, I think it’s important to be confident with my own fluency level and animated with expressions and vocal inflections during oral reading. It is also important to give the students lots of time and different ways to practice. Utilize popcorn reading, shared reading, silent reading, etc. Mix up the technique daily to keep the student from becoming bored or frustrated. I am also now confident in selecting appropriate reading materials for my students. Hooray for methods courses!!!! : )
There are several designer methods used to teach ESL; however, I found that I liked the Total Physical Response Method (TPR) the best.TPR was developed by James Asher and designed to mimic how infants learn their first language. Asher calls it a language conversation because the parent (or in this case the teacher) says something and the infant (or in this case the ELL) gives a physical response. The teacher will say an action word while demonstrating the action. This is then mimicked by the learner. The ELL will start by simply performing the action when the teacher gives the command while silently internalizing the patterns and sounds of the language. Eventually the student will be able to put the vocabulary/sound with the action. As the vocabulary becomes more difficult visual aids can be brought in to help portray meaning. This method would work best for young or beginner ELL in a self-contained classroom. This method is similar to how you would teach in early childhood classrooms. It uses visual aids and physical actions along with instruction to encompass all learning styles. In a younger classroom mostly all of the students learn best kinesthetically no matter what their native language is. TPR gives students an instant understanding of the target language with high speed long term retention in a low stress level environment.
During the course of the class I have also become familiar with assessment tools for ESL. I thought that when I used the SOLOM instrument it was much easier to assess the student. It breaks downs the categories very descriptively so I know exactly what I am looking for. I think that no matter what grade I teach in the future, the SOLOM instrument would work well. It does a more accurate job of defining what the student’s language is like and helps target what needs improvement. I would definitely use the SOLOM instrument in the future so that I can better assess the needs of my students.
I have also created and utilized so many wonderful tools in this class that I will be able to use in my classroom. For example, I can utilize cloze procedures to help my students with vocabulary and comprehension while using choral reading tools to aid in fluency development. At the moment, I would be the most comfortable with targeting reading fluency in my lessons. The key to reading fluency is modeling and practice. I can effectively help my students with reading fluency by continuously reading out loud to them on a daily basis. Reading to the students is one of my favorite parts of the school day. To be a good model for fluency, I think it’s important to be confident with my own fluency level and animated with expressions and vocal inflections during oral reading. It is also important to give the students lots of time and different ways to practice. Utilize popcorn reading, shared reading, silent reading, etc. Mix up the technique daily to keep the student from becoming bored or frustrated. I am also now confident in selecting appropriate reading materials for my students. Hooray for methods courses!!!! : )
Monday, June 28, 2010
Lets Get Them to Read!!!!!
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island."
— Walt Disney
— Walt Disney
You know, for me reading is a confusing topic. I feel like you either hate it or you love. I LOVE to read and I always have. Unfortunately this is not the case with many people. When you ask these non-readers why they hate it so much it usually goes back to some horrible event in their childhood where they were completely embarrassed because they couldn’t read as well as somebody else. Well, that OR they think it’s boring. : ) I think it’s really important to make sure reading is FUN. It should be an adventure, a mysterious, creative, exciting ADVENTURE. Books can take kids places that they may never be able to go in real life and it’s wonderful.
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."
— Frederick Douglass
The question is how do you find books that encourage all these things? Well, I think when they said “A picture is worth a thousand words” they were talking about choosing books for ESL students. Choose books with illustrations that are entrancing. Choose books with words that are captivating. Vocabulary should be challenging but still rewarding. An ESL reader needs to feel confident in their reading so choose books that will help them succeed as well as learn. Choose books that create questions? When children read they should be asking why? How? WHAT IF…? Leave room for imagination and further discovery. The key to promoting literacy is availability. Literacy is EvErYeWhErE…it’s on the posters on the wall, it’s in the magazines, books, newspapers, grocery stores, mail, etc. Point out literacy in all aspects of the child’s life, that’s how you promote it. That’s how you get them excited about it.
"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all."
— Jacqueline Kennedy
Monday, June 14, 2010
AHHHHH ESL
I ALWAYS knew I wanted to be a teacher, a kindergarten teacher! I had never even thought twice about ESL until my junior year of college. I did some tutoring hours in a regular 3rd grade classroom and the classroom teacher was talking to me about her experiences. She was currently going back to school to get her Master in English as a Second Language and had nothing but wonderful things to say about it! Her school practiced the pull-out method of ESL and as a regular classroom teacher, she hated it. She felt so unprepared to deal with the ELL during the majority of the day because she had no experience or training in that area. All she talked about the whole time I was in her classroom was how important it is for teachers in this day and age to be educated on ESL policies and strategies. She advised me that even if I don’t want to be an ESL instructor, taking courses to learn more about the program would be beneficial to me since I will most likely encounter these students at some point in my educational career. This encounter sparked a curiosity in me to learn more about ESL.
It just so happened that the summer after that I had the opportunity to study abroad for a month in Costa Rica. I was the outsider, the newcomer, surrounded by Spanish-only speaking peers. I visited many schools in the area and learned about their culture. I began to think about what it would be like to have these students in an English-only speaking classroom back in the US. They would be surrounded by English-only speaking peers, who not only talked differently but dressed, acted, looked, ate, and lived completely differently.
AHHHHHH ESL!!!!
Having no experience in the area, this was my first thought. How can I help these students become comfortable in their new environment? How can I make their learning experience a positive one? This is my new goal. Whether I am an inclusion, pull-out, self-contained classroom, or regular education classroom teacher, I need to know the answers to these questions to be an effective teacher. I know I don’t have a lot of experience with ESL but I am really excited about being a future teacher and all the wonderful ESL teaching methods I will learn.
YAY ESL : )
It just so happened that the summer after that I had the opportunity to study abroad for a month in Costa Rica. I was the outsider, the newcomer, surrounded by Spanish-only speaking peers. I visited many schools in the area and learned about their culture. I began to think about what it would be like to have these students in an English-only speaking classroom back in the US. They would be surrounded by English-only speaking peers, who not only talked differently but dressed, acted, looked, ate, and lived completely differently.
AHHHHHH ESL!!!!
Having no experience in the area, this was my first thought. How can I help these students become comfortable in their new environment? How can I make their learning experience a positive one? This is my new goal. Whether I am an inclusion, pull-out, self-contained classroom, or regular education classroom teacher, I need to know the answers to these questions to be an effective teacher. I know I don’t have a lot of experience with ESL but I am really excited about being a future teacher and all the wonderful ESL teaching methods I will learn.
YAY ESL : )
Monday, June 7, 2010
Introduction
This blog is used as part of my add-on endorsement curriculum for ESL. I will be posting reflections regarding methods for teaching ESL reading and writing. Enjoy : )
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