3/4/14
Biases
and Assumptions
“…As
we become aware of our hypotheses, we replace our belief in a just world with a
view of a world in which bias plays a role. Since this is a state of affairs we
wish were otherwise, we prefer not to acknowledge it. But we can learn.” –
Virginia Valian
I
feel it is important for me to reflect and identify biases and assumptions that
I have. Sometimes I don’t realize I am being bias unless I am asked to reflect
a particular aspect of my teaching. As a white native English speaker, my
experience with bilingual education has been very minimal. Most of the
bilingual supports that I have seen growing up, and at the high school that I
work at, are very minimal. Our percentage of foreign speakers is small. I
would guess many of the Spanish speaking students at my school have to survive
with minimal supports. We have one bilingual teacher, and she is only at
Hampshire in the mornings. This is my 2nd year teaching at this
school and I still could not tell you what kind of ESL supports that we offer.
After
the readings from this week, I have come to realize when a student enters my
classroom; I just assume their English proficiency skills are high enough to be
academically successful. I assume if they are struggling with a language
barrier I will be able to tell and assist the student. However after reading an
article about English Proficiency, I realize even though many of my students
appear to have strong Social English, their “academic” English may still be a
barrier when it comes to writing and reading proficiently (Cummins, 1994). A
part of me fears because I am not bilingual I will not be able to connect and
teach my students in the ways that they deserve. Even something as simple as
pronouncing my student’s name incorrectly worries me.
3/4/14
When
assumptions “that cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender biases are simply
nonexistent [in] screening and evaluation processes, there is grave danger that
minority and female candidates will be rejected.” –Caroline S. V. Turner
I
feel this statement says we need to make sure the assessments that we use to
screen and evaluate students’ skills are unbiased. Otherwise we are not getting
an accurate representation of the students’ knowledge and abilities. When
people say they “don’t see: race, religion, gender, ethnicity, etc,” I feel
they are trying to say they treat all their students equally and don’t favor
one kind of person over another. People often feel this is how they are
supposed to respond and act towards differences. When in reality when we
ignore an individual’s: race, ethnic background, gender, etc. we are ignoring
big pieces of what makes them who they are. As teachers we need to embrace our
students’ differences and use those differences to motivate our students to be
successful. We can’t give all our student’s the exact same supports because
they all need different things.
Unfortunately
biases will always be with us. It is impossible to escape biases
completely. We are all shaped by the information we are given and our past
experiences. If not carefully educated on how to deal with our biases, many of
our students may be at a disadvantage and/or feel offended by our actions or
lack of actions. Some of my own assumptions of ESL/bilingual education
are/were:
-By
the time a student gets to my classroom they know enough English to be
successful. Another teacher or the ESL teacher has “fixed” them.
-If
a student is not English proficient the school needs to provide more support to
that child in their native language.
-English
speaking students should be exposed to other languages.
-Schools
should teach in both English and Spanish starting at a young age.
-Schools
need to provide more programs for families who do not speak English.
Not
all these assumptions are accurate. In many situations there can be multiple
explanations for the behavior and/or performances observed. This is why I need
to be careful and assess all my students on an individual basis and make sure I
have as much information as possible.
“To
respond without prejudice…an individual must overcome years of exposure to
biased and stereotypical information.” –Patricia Devine et al.
It
can be really easy to make assumptions about why a student and his or her
family act in a particular way. Here are a few examples of stereotypical
situations and assumptions that I have made:
-If
I call home to report a student is not doing well in school and I get no
response. Does that mean the parent must not care? Maybe they just don’t
know English?
-If
a student is not doing his/her homework is he/she an unmotivated student? Or
frustrated because he/she does not understand the language?
-If
a student does not have good grades he/she must not want to go to
college. Or just needs resources and information about college in order
to be motivated?
-Something
is wrong with my student if they don’t want to go to college. (Some
students have other ambitions).
-Taking
vacations when school is in session must mean the family does not value
education. Or maybe school is valued, but comes after family or religion?
-Parents
of my ESL students don’t like to come to parent teacher conferences or “Open
House.” May be the parents don’t know about these events, or know how to
communicate in English and are embarrassed to come?
-Parents
don’t check their kid’s grades on-line so school must not be a top
priority. Or maybe they might not have a computer or know about the
on-line grading program?
-Students
who are minorities must all come from low income families (some may be
wealthy).
-If
a student is struggling with school. He/she might have a learning disability?
Or He/she might not be English proficient?
The
list of assumptions that I have made could go on and on. However, what has
helped me to get past many of these assumptions is to gain more knowledge about
the culture and daily lives of my students. Depending on the culture, things
such as body language and other costumes may be perceived one way by one group
of people, and another way by a different group of people. For example, looking
an adult in the eyes may be a sign of respect in one culture but a sign of
disrespect in another. Education is key when it comes to eliminating
assumptions.
12/24/14
PARCC
and Common Core Standards
Many
teachers know the number of students who speak a native language other than
English is on the rise. “From 1998 to 2008, the number of English language
learner students increased from 3.5 million to 5.3
million,
and researchers estimate that 1 in 10 public school students in the United
States is an English Language Learner” (Chang, 2012). Meaning the number of
diverse needs we need to meet in our classroom is increasing exponentially. We
are told to differentiate our instruction to meet the diverse needs of our
students and to vary our assessment techniques. However, we are also being
pressured to prepare our diverse group of students for the same standardized
test…. This concept seems contradictory and results in frustration from all
parties involved.
The
staff at my school has become extra sensitive to Obama’s plans and the new
Common Core Standards. Our school is one of the schools volunteering to pilot
that PARCC assessment. This assessment is supposed to be aligned with the
Common Core Standards. The PARCC assessment hopes to give a better
representation of what students know and assess their higher ordered thinking
skills. However, when we as a staff all took a practice PARCC assessment, we
found the assessment to be extremely difficult and frustrating. For many
reasons, we did not feel the PARCC would be a good representation of our
students’ knowledge or readiness for college. This is why the staff had some
hesitations about some of Obama’s new plans presented in the video. http://www.ed.gov/blog/2011/05/video-released-a-teachers-guide-to-fixing-no-child-left-behind/
We
agreed as a group that having national learning standards is a good idea.
However, the group expressed lots of hesitation and worry about the new
assessments and their validity of student’s knowledge and college readiness,
especially for students in special education and students lacking English
proficiency. The math questions for example, not only requires the test taker
to have proficient math skills, but proficient reading skills to comprehend the
questions and proficient writing skills to defend and explain their solution.
The staff at my school and I are quickly learning how important it is to stay
up to date on new education laws for they are effecting and continually
changing what and how we teach in the classroom.
3/12/14
Why
Promote Native Languages other than English?
“In the future, any country which does not make proper provisions for the support of lesser-used and indigenous languages may be regarded as an irresponsible destroyer of the world’s cultural resources.” - Susan Roberta Katz
Language plays an essential part in a person’s identity and culture. It is through language that we are able to connect and learn from one another. People who speak the same language often are familiar with the same: movies, books, television shows, songs, and more (Graddol, 2004). People natural gravitate toward others who speak the same language and who share similar experiences such as the ones previous mentioned. As soon as a person opens their mouth, others begin to draw assumptions about where a person is from and any stereotypes associated with that language, culture, or place of origin.
“In the future, any country which does not make proper provisions for the support of lesser-used and indigenous languages may be regarded as an irresponsible destroyer of the world’s cultural resources.” - Susan Roberta Katz
Language plays an essential part in a person’s identity and culture. It is through language that we are able to connect and learn from one another. People who speak the same language often are familiar with the same: movies, books, television shows, songs, and more (Graddol, 2004). People natural gravitate toward others who speak the same language and who share similar experiences such as the ones previous mentioned. As soon as a person opens their mouth, others begin to draw assumptions about where a person is from and any stereotypes associated with that language, culture, or place of origin.
Even
within the same language, there are different subcultures based on: dialects,
phrases, slang terms, names, words etc. If a person cannot understand a
particular dialect or language, communication starts to break down and the full
meaning of: a story, slang term, song, or phrase is lost.
According
to Graddol (2004), “roughly 6,000 languages exist in the world today. Yet 90%
of these may be doomed to extinction...” When a language becomes extinct so
does the ability to understand native culture and research. “Losing a language
and its cultural contexts is like burning a unique reference book for the
natural world” (Graddol, 2004). Meaning no longer can we learn from research
written in an extinct language because there is no one left to translate the
information.
I
feel it is important for the United States to provide supports to promote
languages other than English. In Graddol’s (2004) article, the five most spoke
languages in the world are: Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi/Urdu, and Arabic.
If the US does not continue foster supports for these languages we will not be
able to communicate with other countries about issues/improvements related:
technology, economics, politics, education, medicine, and so much more. The
more people that are capable of communicating in different languages the more
our country will benefit from the ideas of others form different nations.
3/12/14
According
to Bernhardt (2003), “The issue of language is a sensitive one in first
language literacy and most certainly in second. There are not many reading
researchers who know a language other than English. Hence, they are imprisoned
figuratively in an English-language mindset.”
One
way being monolingual, with English as the native language, may affect the
research of learning English as a second language, would be lack of personal
experience. Lack of personal experience may then affect the initial hypotheses
of the researcher. A native English speaker may have experienced trying to
learn another language, for example Spanish, and could sympathize and
anticipate what teaching techniques are beneficial when trying to learn
Spanish. However, to state the obvious, native English speakers don’t have the
personal experience of trying to learn English as their second language. This
may affect a researcher’s ability to predict what teaching techniques are
effective or where struggles may arise when learning English.
A
bigger issues, may be the assessments used to assess an ESL student’s English
proficiency. English researchers are most likely going to use English made
assessments to assess ESL students’ proficiency skills. These assessments may
be subject to undetected biases by a native English speaker. As a result, the
researcher ends up with invalid and unreliable data. Kamhi and Laing (2003)
write that students from diverse backgrounds should not be solely assessed on
their oral and written skills scores from standardized norm-referenced based
test procedures. Taking assessments is a “culture phenomenon (p.44)” and these
assessments are biased toward children of diverse backgrounds. The most common
kinds of biases in assessments are: content bias, linguistic bias, and
disproportionate representation in normative samples (Kamhi, Laing,
2003).
Overall,
a lack of personal experience and undetected biases in assessments may affect
the data of monolingual researcher’s research on learning English as a second
language.
3/23/14
Best
Bilingual/ESL Education Model?
I
just spent the past hour looking for an article that had data to support why
Bilingual education is the best model to use, but found that all articles
stated similar conclusions as Faltis (2011) which is, inconclusive results
about the Bilingual education model being the most effective for ESL students.
Researchers seem to struggle weeding out other factors that may be affecting
results such as: socioeconomic status, parental support, adequate professional
development, true implementation, student age, a student’s prior education, and
more.
Without
clear data to back me up, If a student is entering a US school before the age
of 12 (Faltis, 2011), I feel Maintenance or Developmental Bilingual education
is the best model. My reasoning is Maintenance Bilingual education is the only
model that fosters both a student’s native language and English equally on an
ongoing basis. In the long run, I feel being bilingual aids a student when they
enter the work force. In an article by Fry and Lowel (2005) they concluded that
“Skills in a second language, if accompanied by high proficiency in English, is
associated with higher pay and earnings” (p. 797).
If
a student arrives in the US after the age of 12 and plans on living in the US
and obtaining a job, the student needs to focus on learning English before they
graduate. I feel English as a Second Language (ESL) model is best for students
needing to learn English and earn their High School degree in a timely manner.
Sadly, the reality is people who are not English proficient are often not
presented with the same opportunities as a proficient English speaker. “Regardless
of their skills in a second language, workers who lack high proficiency in
understanding English tend to be disadvantaged in the labor market and poorly
rewarded” (Fry & Lowel, 2005, p. 797). As a monolingual English speaker,
who teaches at the high school level, I feel the ESL model is also the model I
will end up using personally.
It
has been my personal experience that most teachers and administrators agree on
effective methods for teaching ELS students when provided with adequate
professional development training and research to prove that particular
strategies work. However, the biggest obstacle my school faces is funding to
provide adequate ESL/bilingual programs. To be honest I don’t know the solution
to this problem. The high school I teach at has a small percentage of ESL
students, speaking varying languages, and at varying levels. We have one ESL
teacher who is present only in the morning. One solution may be to give the
families of the few ESL students at our school the option to attend another
school in the district that does have a bigger and more developed ESL and
bilingual program. I feel our school also needs to offer transportation for
these students to the other high school in the district. Currently, it is my
understanding we may offer students the option to attend the other school, but
we make the families responsible for their own transportation. This is
disappointing because I know for special education services at other schools we
offer transportation.
3/30/14
Student
Learning Profile Idea for My School
I
feel it would be really helpful for each ESL student to have a quick student
bio that was sent to each of their teachers at the start of the year. This bio
would be similar to the student learning profiles used for students with IEPs
and 504’s. These bios would include things such as: helpful accommodations, a
social and academic English proficiency scale, native language, best way to
communicate with parents; length of time lived in the U.S. etc. As of now,
unless a teacher was to look at a student’s schedule, they would not know if
the student participated in our ESL program. Knowing this information at the
start of the year would encourage teachers to provide immediate accommodations.
4/11/14
What
is Diversity? What Makes Me Diverse?
In
my eyes, diversity is the differences that make each and every one of us
unique. Diversity is more than just differences in race. It is differences in:
economic status, gender, interests, fears, learning style, culture, religion,
sexual orientation, language, development, intelligence, and more. It is
actually because I learn differently that I chose to be an educator. In
kindergarten, I could say my alphabet all day long, but could not identify my
letters. Just about every Thursday night in 1st grade I cried in frustration
because I couldn’t I couldn’t remember how to spell all 20 words for Fridays
spelling test. In 2nd grade when I continued to struggle in reading, spelling,
and was writing my name in mirror image, my teacher had me assessed for special
education services. Sure enough I was diagnosed with a learning disability,
more specifically dyslexia. Thanks to early intervention, family support, and
self-determination, I became academically successful. The day I was accepted
into University of Illinois’s Special Education Program, I was ecstatic. I was
about to accomplish the “impossible” and was eager to help other diverse
learners do the same.
Now,
two years into my teaching career, I still contribute my patience, empathy, and
teaching practices to my experience as a once struggling student. I still
struggle with particular skills such as spelling and reading aloud, but the
coping strategies that I have learned often make my disability invisible to
others. Among other things, it is these coping strategies that I pass along to
my current students. My personal experience combined with my college education
has allowed me to reach and relate to students that many other teachers
cannot.
In
addition to my unique learning style, other characteristics that make me
diverse are:
- I am a Christian.
- I am a female who teaches
mostly math and science classes.
- I like to run. I have run five
marathons.
- I am white.
- I am in the middle class.
- I am single.
- I live in the suburbs of
Chicago.
- I am a native English
speaker.
- I am in my 20’s.
- My parents are still
married.
- I am the oldest with two
younger brothers.
- Both of my parents worked
growing up.
- I went to college and hold a
white-collar job (as did my parents).
As
a result of these diversities I hold faith, family, education, and, health, and
economic status as priorities. I also encourage my students to do the same.
Personal SWOT Analysis:
Strengths
-I am very sensitive to different learning styles.
-I build trust and connections easily with students.
-I frequently communicate with students’ parents.
- I know how to relate with people who have interests and
participate in athletics.
-As a science teacher I do a good job presenting material
in multiple ways. (different means of representation) I feel my lessons are
very student centered.
- I value and emphasize students working with one another.
|
Weaknesses
-I am only fluent in English and can’t translate for ESL
students.
-I’m Christian and I am not very familiar with other
religions holidays or costumes.
-I don’t know much about theater or choir and struggle to
relate to students with these interests.
-As an Algebra teacher, I struggle to come up with
different ways to present material. I feel my lessons are more teacher
centered. I struggle to relate the concepts to my students’ lives.
-I don’t know as much about blue collared jobs or what the
best steps for a student to take if they don’t go to college.
-I don’t know much about financial aid and different
grants.
|
Opportunities
-My students can discuss the different careers they are
interested in.
-Students can talk about the different jobs their parents
have.
-Student can share their different customs and holidays.
-Students can share the different ways they solved a
problem.
-Students can learn from each other’s experiences.
|
Threats
-A student feeling embarrassed because they need more
supports than another student.
-Other students not being accepting of one another’s
differences.
-Students are embarrassed because they look different, wear
different clothes, have different possessions.
-A student feels I cannot relate to their life and as a
result doesn’t feel I can help them solve a non-school related issue.
|
4/11/14
Current
Personal Struggle with Teaching Algebra 2
Using
strategies such as Universal Design and differentiation are essential in order
for me to reach the wide range of diverse learners. In my physical science
class I am at ease when it comes to coming up with different means of
representation. Each unit, if not each lesson, starts with activating the
students’ prior knowledge. From there, the information and vocabulary is
presented and investigated using repetition through multiple means of
representation (kinesthetic, verbally, auditorily, and visually). I see
teachers across subjects utilizing these same strategies. The one subject area
that I struggle the most to find different means of representation for, is
math, in particular Algebra II. I have noticed other teachers struggle with
this as well. The higher the math class, the harder it seems to relate the math
to the students’ lives and gain their buy in. In addition, the students have
such weak math foundations it make learning and retaining the higher level math
concepts that much harder.
4/14/14
Where
I Grew Up v.s. Where I Teach & My Hope
Where
I teach is very different form where I grew up. I grew up in a wealthier suburb
of Chicago where expectations for education were set very high. Students were
extremely competitive about grades and ACT scores. If you did not do your
homework you were embarrassed. Going to college was a given and a must. In most
families parents held white-collard jobs and expected their children to do the
same. This type of community was stressful, but it also got me to where I am
today.
Now
I am a special education teacher at a small town high school where the students
are ok with not doing their homework and earning just a passing grade. College
is not an expectation or even an option for a good portion of the students. Many
of the students’ parents are blue-collared workers and many of the students
plan on following in their parents footsteps. I am concerned for my students
because it is becoming harder and harder to obtain a job now a days (with a
substantial income and benefits) without a higher education. I fear many of my
students will have a very rude awakening when they graduate from high school
and step outside of their small town and have very minimal options.
I
hope to learn more strategies to use in the classroom to reach my classroom
full of diverse learners. I hope to learn how to better prepare and motivate my
students to reach their fullest potential. I want my students to someday become
successful independent adults.
5/4/14
Making
the Switch to Alternative Assessments
Joyce
VanTassel-Baska studies, as well as many other researchers, tell us that
alternative assessments are not only beneficial for gifted students, but for
economically disadvantaged and minority students as well. Alternative
assessments can minimize cultural disadvantages and give a more accurate
picture of a student’s knowledge and higher level thinking skills (2014). The
question is how to we get teachers and administrators to make the shift to
incorporating more alternative assessments a reality. I know there would be a
few issues and concerns that teachers at my school would want addressed before
they committed themselves to using alternative assessments.
The
first is, many teachers would want to know more about alternative assessments:
how they are made, what is needed, what are they, etc. Administrators would
need to educate teachers about alternative assessments through professional
development trainings. Processes and trainings would also need to be put in
place to teach teachers how to be objective and consistent with their grading.
I can see teachers being worried students were not being graded equally and
consistently. How would a teacher know if they are grading their students
similar to other teachers? Teachers at my school would also be concerned about
the extra time needed to learn how to implement, create, and grade alternative
assessments. I can imagine overtime it will take less time to create alternative
assessments, but the time needed to grade five classes worth of 30 plus
students’ alternative assessments would stay about the same overtime. Teachers
are also going to need more resources and materials (project materials,
technology, books, etc.) other than just paper, in order to implement a wider
variety of assessments.
In
addition to professional development, In order to ease teachers’ minds about
using alternative assessments, my administrators would need to address the
previously stated concerns. The a administrators could start by: decrease class
sizes, increase the number of co-teachers, decrease the number of preps a
teacher has, and build in extra paid time for teachers to create and grade
alternative assessments. This would help address many teachers concern of the
increase in time needed to implement and grade alternative assessments.
Administrators would also need to increase the amount of resources, materials,
and technology currently available at our school. Teachers are frequently
struggling to find computer lab and library time to enhance the variety of
alternative assessments. Teachers are also spending lots of money out of their
own pocket to make sure their students have the materials needed to create
projects such as models, diagrams, etc. My school has a long way to go before
teachers are confidently and frequently using alternative assessments. However,
I feel these are some of the issues and steps my school would need to take to
reach that point.
5/21/14
Why
Address the Diversity of Students?
It
is important to address the diversity of students because it provides great
insight to teachers like me, who want to reduce biases and reach their students
on multiple levels. I have learned that instruction becomes more effective and
meaningful when I teach at my student’s current level and when I present
content that is relevant to their lives. Each of my students enters the
classroom with different experiences, culture, interests, values, levels of
understanding, needs, fears, and so much more. By acknowledge these
differences, and incorporate them into my instruction if I can keep my students
motivated and eager to learn. In addition, by considering the different needs
and learning styles of my students, it allows me to create lessons that are not
bias and are accessible to everyone. By creating and effective learning
environment that supports the education of all students, I am demonstrating
American College of Education’s disposition of equity. Valuing and accepting
the diversity of my students promotes a positive safe environment for all
students to be successful.
5/21/14
How
and Why to Get to Know My Students?
I
have learned the value of diversity and demonstrating the disposition of equity
to all my students. It is my goal to get to know each of my students as soon as
possible. One way I plan to get to know my students at the start of the school
year, is by asking them to create a collage of their interests, values, and
important people in their life. I then plan to hang these collages around my
classroom. Through this assignment, I will obtain a lot of valuable information
about my students’ school and home lives that I can incorporate into my lessons
throughout the year. I also plan on having my students take a learning style
inventory. This will first and foremost, will help my students learn valuable
information about themselves and how they learn best. The learning style
inventory will also help me decide how to best present content and which
students to group together for future projects.
5/21/14
Supporting
Social-Emotional Needs of Diverse Learners at My School
Currently
our school has 1.5 social workers, 1 school psychologist, four school
counselors, seven special education teachers, one nurse, and a part time ESL
teacher. All of these people work closely with many of the students with high
social-emotional needs. These staff members meet with students one-on-one and
in small group settings. During one-on-one sessions and small group meetings,
students share their struggles and are also taught different ways to cope with
their particular struggles. In addition to the student services staff, the
general education teachers also play a large part in identifying struggling
students and providing necessary supports. It is the teachers that often are
the 1st to hear or observe a struggling student. This year our school created a
form for teachers to fill out if they felt a student in their classroom needed
additional social emotional supports. The teacher then gave this form to the
student’s councilor. Sounds small, but this has been a huge help. The
counselors and social workers are not in the classroom, so unless a staff
member tell them about a struggling student they will never know. As a result
many more students are receiving the supports they need. The teachers all make
conscious efforts to decorate their classrooms in inviting ways. Teacher also
set clear rules and communicate respectfully with the students as aid in
creating a safe and inviting environment.
I
am a special education teacher, and teach in many of the lower level classes.
It has been my experience that many of the parents are not involved in creating
a supportive learning environment. I think this may be because many of the
parents work or have other children to take care of during the day. If I call a
parent to attend an IEP meeting, discuss a student’s behavior, or grade the
parents are often supportive and nice. However, in most cases I am the one to
make the initial contact. My school has made all students grades available
on-line for parents and students to check, but I never know how many of the
parents actually check their child’s grades on a regular basis. There are some
parents who do help put together activities such as prom and post prom events,
but not many. It is my feeling my school does not do a great job of keeping
parents aware of ways to help out. Often instead of mailing school
announcements, grades, or information about upcoming events home we give the
papers to the students or post it electronically. As a result, I am not sure
how many of the school notices actually make it home to the parents.
As
a school teacher leader one of the ways I try to enhance the learning
environment and include parents, is I contact home frequently. For the students
on my caseload, I make sure to mail home all grade reports. I know a few of the
students on my caseload do not have computers at home so without my phone calls
or mails their parents would have no clue what their child’s grades are.
One
of the things I would like to see improved, is to have the social workers and
counselors work with students in the classroom and not just in pull-out
settings. It has been stated in research that often students can identify in
therapy sessions what they need to do, but are not able to generalize and
implement their new skills in real life situations (Adams, 2013). As a teacher
leader I can encourage this is by personally invite the counselors or social
workers to come sit in on one of my classes. I feel teaching social-emotional
skills in their natural setting could result in positive social-emotional
growth.
6/3/14
Student
Centered Learning
As
demonstrated by Rosa Hernandez, it is important to implement student centered
learning at a young age in order for the students to benefit fully. I teach at
the high school level, and I sometimes feel resistance from my students when
they partake in student centered learning. They often complain about the amount
of effort and work they have to put in. No longer can they just sit back and
listen to a teacher lecture. Their minds have to be engaged at all times for
them to be successful in the lesson. According to Hains and Smith (2012), there
are eight stages students go through when shifting from teacher centered
learning to student centered learning. These stages are: “shock, denial, strong
emption, resistance and withdrawal, surrender and acceptance, struggle and
exploration, return of confidence and integration and success” (Hains &
Smith, 2012, p. 361). The earlier a student partakes in student centered
learning the faster they should progress through the eight stages. Hains and
Smith (2012) also encourage teachers to not give up on implementing student
centered learning. They say the students will eventually adjust and the
benefits of student centered learning are well worth the struggle.
6/19/14
Enrichment/Bilingual
Model v.s. Immersion/English-Only Model
If
I was a new bilingual/ESL teacher, the first thing I would like to do with my
students is assess their current English proficiency skills. If the students
lack strong English proficiency skills, I would be doing them a disservice by
not using their native language to help them learn English and grade level
content. Research by Ovando (2003), states students will struggle to make
academic and linguistic gains if they do not understanding the content being
taught. Meaning English language learners (ELL) benefit from the use of their
native language to fully understand grade level content. ELL students have the
ability to learn grade level content, but lack the English vocabulary to both
comprehend the content and express their knowledge of the content. Eliminating
a student’s native language from their education drastically increases the
likelihood they will fall behind their English speaking peers. Researchers
Goldenberg and Reese (2006) tell us subtractive bilingual education (such as
immersion), have resulted in “devaluation of Spanish, subordination of
Spanish-speaking populations, and underachievement” (p.43). In an ideal
situation, I would implement an additive bilingual education program where both
the students’ native language and English were equally valued and utilized in
the classroom. Research has proven additive models increase student linguistic
and academic performance (Goldenberg & Reese, 2006). However, if my
principal insists on an immersion program, I ask to compromise by implementing a
transitional bilingual program. This will allow the students to receive
instruction in their native language until they have learned enough English to
be immersed in English only classes. I would also like to suggest these
students continue to receive additional accommodations and supports from their
general education teacher and ESL co-teacher to ensure the success of the
students. Villalba, Akos, Keeter, and Ames (2007) explain how ELL students take
about two years to learn basic social English skills, but take about five to
seven years to reach an English proficiency level high enough to not be
academically disadvantaged. This is why I find it essential ELL student
supports continue after they leave the transitional bilingual program.
6/26/14
Technology Available for
ELLs -Personal Experience
At
my current school, there is no technology dedicated primarily to its ELL
students. There are few computer labs, smartboards, and laptop carts for all
the teaches to share. Each teacher is also given their own laptop, document
camera, DVD/VCR player, and projector. It is up the teacher to utilize or not
utilize the technology available to the best of their ability. Depending on how
creative and how teach savvy a teacher is, determines how much the technology
provided is used in the classroom. There are optinal smartboard trainings, but
there are no other professional development trainings related to technology
offered that I am aware of.
I
think my current school, is off to a good start with the amount of technology available,
but I think each child should have continual access to a laptop or Ipad of
sorts. Chang and Kim (2009) discuss the importants of access to a computer at
home. As part of their research they found that access to a computer at home
had a greater effect on academic performance than computer use at school. This
is why I feel it would greatly benefit the students to have their own laptop or
Ipad that could be used both in school and at home. Computer access can
increase the use of inquire teaching methods and the use of different learning
modalities. Technology allows information to be presented in a verity of
different ways and allows students to express their understanding in a plethora
of ways in the general education setting.
I
feel more computer based interventions for ELL students could be Incorporated.
My school is limited to a pull-out program with one part-time ELL teacher who
has to teacher students with a wide verity of skills. Computer based
interventions would allow students to practice their skills multiple times a
day even if the ESL teacher was not present. The computer based program would
also allow a great station activity if the ELL teacher was taking turns working
with each of the different levels of ELL students. One example of a common
computer based ELL program is Rosetta Stone®.
7/2/14
My
Role as a Teacher of ELLs- Increase Social Emotional, Academic, and Future
Success
I
found Villalba, Akos, Keeter, & Ames (2007) research article called
“Promoting Latino Students Achievement and Development Through the ASCA
National Model,” to be the most beneficial to helping me understand my role as
a teacher of English language learners. This article is actually geared toward
school counselors, but as a teacher I too can use the advice provided on how to
increase social emotional, academic, and future success for minority students
at my school. Minority students are often faced with struggles such as:
language acquisition, social hardship, acculturation, racism, economic
hardship, and limited resources (Villalba, Akos, Keeter, & Ames, 2007). As
a result several minority students end up feeling frustrated and depressed and
even dope out of school.
It
is my job to be committed to the disposition of equity, by creating an inviting
and safe environment that respects students’ culture, customs, norms, and
traditions (Villalba, Akos, Keeter, & Ames, 2007). The first step in
creating a culturally accepting environment is to analyze and identify my
personal beliefs and biases of different cultural groups in hopes of
eliminating personal biases. From there I can identify my students’ strengths
and needs. I will use the students’ strengths as encouragement and aids in my
lessons as I specifically teach and address themes such as: tolerance,
racial/ethnic identity, respect of differences and future career options
(Villalba, Akos, Keeter, & Ames, 2007). In addition, I can aid in the
promotion of equity through the set-up of pep-rallies, talent shows, classroom
decorations, and cultural fairs that create awareness of diversity and displays
accomplishments by people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. It is
also my role as an educator, to find and share community resources with my
students, my students’ families, and other staff members. When possible I will
encourage parent and community volunteers to aid in school activities and
lessons. In doing so, they will act as positive role models and resources for
all students. It is my goal to take all these essential measures to create an
environment where all students feel they are valued and have the resources,
skills, and support they need to succeed.
7/3/14
Legislation/Policies
Related to Assessment for ELLs- NCLB & PARCC- Personal Opinion
One
of the big policies related to Education and English Language learners is No
Child Left Behind (NCLB). In my opinion, there are many parts of this policy
that are flawed, but I think the idea of holding schools accountable for the
progress of all students is important. In a report by the U.S. Department of Education
(2009), it is stated 94% of the teachers in 2006-2007 were considered highly
qualified under NCLB. It is my feeling making sure teachers are highly
qualified to teach their particular content area, plays a huge role in student
progress. There should be polices in place to ensure teachers are highly
qualified.. The U.S. Department of Education (2009) report further reported:
many of teachers not considered highly qualified many of them were found to be
teaching in high-poverty schools. These high-poverty schools often also
struggle with their teacher retention rate (U.S. Department of Education,
2009).
My
issue with current policies is they are put in place before districts are
provided the funding, resources, and professional development to increase
student outcomes. In addition, the variance among schools implementation and
standards for assessments and teacher expectorants makes data comparisons
invalid. For example, the move to the PARCC assessment is soon to be in effect
and clear expectations, resources, and training has yet to be provided. It is
unfair and fatal to implement new expectations and assessments before schools
and teachers have the mean to do so. Our school staff took a sample PARCC
assessment (for the high school level) and highly qualified teachers struggled
to understand and answer the assessment questions related to their content
area. I can only imagine how ELL and special education students will perform on
the PARCC assessment. If I were make a change to the current policies I would
aim to make them more consistent and ensure resources, time, funding, and
training are provided well in advance.
7/22/14
Stages
of Language Acquisition For Elementary Students v.s. Secondary Students
According
to the ACE presentations (2014), the Natural Approach focuses the stages of
oral language development. The four stages of oral language development
are: pre-production, early production, speech emergence, and intermediate
fluency (ACE, 2014). It is my understanding that no matter what age a person
is, they will transition through the four stages of development as they become
more and more proficient in language. With this being said, I think
instructional strategies that foster each stage should be the same for both
elementary and secondary students. For all students in the pre-production
stage, the Total Physical Response strategy, where students listen and
respond with a physical action is an effective teaching method (ACE, 2014). For
students in the early production stage, interactive word walls with pictures
are an effective teaching tool (Holmes,
Rutledge, & Gauthier, 2009). For the speech emergence stage, asking
open ended questions and comparing picture activities are effective activities (Holmes, Rutledge, & Gauthier, 2009).
Lastly for the intermediate fluency stage, teaching and modeling metcognitive
strategies is effective strategy (Holmes,
Rutledge, & Gauthier, 2009).
8/12/14
Personal
Struggles with the Reality
By
having to design multiple lessons and activities, it forced me to take my
understanding of different ELL instructional methods to a higher level. . I
teach physical science or Algebra 2 to a different group of students every 45
minutes. So when my masters assignments asked me to create thematic units and
interdisciplinary lessons I was forced to think outside of just math and
science. I often found myself wishing I knew more about what was being taught
in other departments so I could better focus my lessons on universal skills for
a particular grade. I was also frustrated at times trying to figure out how
simultaneously fosters multiple subject areas and language acquisition in a
short time frame. I know these constraints are issues many teachers of older
students in a high school or middle school setting face when one period is
dedicated to one subject each. It is frustrating to read and learn about ideal
learning environments and resources and know the reality is far from ideal and
not as black and white.I wish there was more collaboration and intertwining of
different content areas into thematic unites.
8/12/14
Culturally
Relevant Book Recommendation & Promoting Cultural Diversity
The
culturally relevant book I recommend is the book White Socks Only by Evelyn
Coleman (1996). This book is about an African American girl who is visiting
with her grandma. The grandma proceeds to retell one of the granddaughter’s
favorite stories from when the grandma was a child in Mississippi. The grandma
explains it was a hot summer day and she went into town with two raw eggs in
her pockets. She had wanted to see for herself if one could really fry and egg
on the hot streets. On the way home from frying her egg, she stopped to get a
drink from a water fountain in the park. She notices however, the water
fountain reads “whites only,” so she pauses, takes off her black shoes, and
once standing white socks she takes a drink. Of course a white man sees this
happening and comes over to beat her with his belt. She is very confused by
this and begins to cry. Then one-by-one older black men and women approach the
water fountain, take off their shoes, and take a drink. The story ends with by
an older black man taking a drink and without a word turning and pointing at
the white man with the belt. No words were exchanged, but the white man walks
away.
There
are several aspects of this book I find reflective of an authentic culturally
relevant book based on the criteria found on the Reading is Fundamental (RIF)
website. To start this book portrays the importance of the relationship between
a grandma and her granddaughter. The well-developed plot first makes the reader
think the book is just about a girl trying to fry an egg. However, the readers
then find themselves empathizing with the main character as her innocence
result in her learning a hard truth about society. The book ends on a positive
note as the girl witnesses people uniting and successfully resisting social and
moral compromise. Written by Evelyn Coleman, an older black woman herself, I
feel the book accurately portrays historical norms during that time as well as
authentic language. The pictures also do a great job in aiding in the
comprehension of the story.
One
of the easiest things I feel a teacher can do to promote respect for cultural
diversity in the classroom is by providing culturally relevant visuals, books,
and materials. By teachers displaying visuals representing different cultures
they send the message that diversity is the norm and valued. Students may feel
more at home and accepted by their teacher if they see him/her making efforts
to display culturally relevant posters, objects, etc. around the room. Having
an abundance of easily accessible culturally relevant books and setting aside
time for students to read, also prompts acceptance and respect for diversity
(Vardell, Hadaway & Young, 2006). Books allow the opportunity for students
to connect with diverse characters and educate themselves on similarities and
differences. Activities such as read alouds (Reading is Fundamental),
literature circles, guest speakers, and field trips followed by class and small
group discussion allow for a common experience that encouraged students to
discuss differences yet find commonalities and respect for different cultures.
9/1/14
Guiding
Assessment Principle by Hurley and Blake (2000) & the ACCESS
Assessment
Based
on the Guiding Assessment Principle by Hurley and Blake (2000) the ACCESS
assessment seems to be the most appropriate assessment for English language
learners. What I think is most beneficial about the ACCESS assessment, is how
it is aligned with the WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards for English
language Learners in Kindergarten through Grade 12 (2012) which is aligned with
the Common Core State Standard and Next Generations Science Standards. The
ACCESS test does not just assess for social English proficiency, but academic
English proficiency in each subject area (World-Class Instructional Design
Assessment, 2008). Since this assessment is aligned with English language
standards and academic standards, the student scores are a reliable tool in
deciding ELL supports and predicting academic success with material presented
in English. The assessment legally has to be given to ESL students once a year
which allows for student progress to be monitored. Ideally student progress
should be monitored more than once a year, so supplemental assessments should
be added by the teacher to ensure the most update student progress and fine
tune instruction on a day to day basis. For these reasons I find the ACCESS
assessment to be the most appropriate for English language learners.
9/1/14
Guiding
Assessment Principle by Hurley and Blake (2000) & the Woodcock Muñoz
Language Survey
Based
on the Guiding Assessment Principle by Hurley and Blake (2000) the Woodcock
Muñoz Language Survey seems to be the least appropriate assessment for English
language learners. In my research it was never made clear if the Woodcock Muñoz
Language Survey was aligned with English Language proficiency Standards, Common
Core Standards, or Next Generation Science Standards. The Woodcock Muñoz
Language Survey assess reading, writing, speaking, and listening, but does not
paint a clear and valid picture of how a student is and will perform with
academic content related to each of the specific subject areas (Alvarado, Ruef,
, & Schrank, 2005). This assessment may be a useful tool in identifying a
student who needs ELL supports, but not a good assessment for tracking progress
of state learning standards. This assessment gives minimal data on what
instructional changes to make and what students do and don’t understand. For
these reasons I don’t see the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey assessment to be
the most appropriate assessment for English language learners.
9/10/14
Personal
Experience with Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)/ Professional Learning
Teams (PLTs)
At
the high school I teach at we have “late starts” about every other week on
Mondays. Instead of the students starting at 7:30 they start at 9:45. During
late start meetings sometimes we meet as a whole school and sometimes we meet
in our PLTs (professional learning teams). The professional learning teams at
our school are broken up by department/subject. So for example, everyone who
teaches science will meet together. If more than one teacher teaches a
particular field of science, then we break up into even small groups. For
example all the biology teachers will meet together to discuss. Things getting
a little tricky when teachers teach more than one subject or field of science
because then they have to decide which group to join. For example, I am a
special education teacher who teaches both physical science and Algebra 2 so I
often have to pick which group to meet with. Parts of me wish I was not split
because I end up missing information and collaboration time with each
group.
During
these PLT meetings we discus pacing, assessments, particular assignments,
teacher strategies, state standards, things we are struggling with , and
anything else we feel needs to be discussed. For the past two years our school
has been focusing on incorporating more nonfiction reading text into our
classrooms and teaching the students how to answer higher leveled questions. My
school seems to be focused on ACT scores and now the PARCC assessment.
I
know from research how important and beneficial PLTs are from a collaborations
stand point and how that increases instruction and learning outcomes (Owen,
2014). However, if I am being honest I don’t get much out of my PLT meetings.
The problem is my physical science co-teacher and I are the only ones at our
school who teach physical science, so we have no other teachers to discuss
specifics with. The other issue is, since my co-teacher teaches other field of
science she end up meeting/collaborating with those teachers during PLT times.
As a result her and I don’t get to plan/disucss during that time. Then for
Algebra 2, I am the only teacher who teaches the resource (special ed) level
and so when I meet with the other Algebra 2 teachers they talk about skills my
students are not on yet (and may never get to). My school also lacks the
student interventions needed to help bring the low level students up to par
with the general education students. So overall, the PLT teams at my school
have the potential to be beneficial, but because I am split between two
subjects and no other teachers are teaching what I am teaching they often end
up becoming not as beneficial as they could be. I take away some helpful
information, but it is not an ideal situation.
9/17/14
What
I Would Want to Know about A New ELL Student
If
I were to get a new ELL student in my classroom, I would want to know the
answers to the following questions:
1.
How to pronounce their name?
2.
What kind of education and experiences have they had in the past? Can the
student read, write, and problem solve in their native language?
3.
What content has the student learned in their native language and
English?
4.
What is their English proficiency level?
5.
What is their native language?
6.
Where is the student from?
7.
Who do they live with and what their home life like?
8.
How long has the student lived in the: U.S., state, and town?
9.
What kind of education do the student’s parents have?
10.
How much English do the student’s parents or guardians know?
11.
What interventions and accommodations have been used in the past? Which of
those interventions and accommodations worked or didn't work?
12.
What has the student’s school attendance been like in the past?
13.
What is the student’s economic status like? Do they qualify for free and reduce
lunch?
14.
What educational and social resources does the student have access to in and
outside of school?
Based
on the answers to these questions I will be able to determine where to start my
instruction and what accommodations and supports to put in place. I know from
research, that students’ past educational experiences and level of proficiency
in their native language often act as indicators of success in academic classes
spoken in English (Thomas, & Collier, 1997). I will also want to continue
to implement any instructional strategies that were effective for that child in
the past and avoid any ineffective strategies previously tried. By knowing a
student’s level of English proficiency, I can better determine the best
educational environment for that student. By knowing where a students is from
and what their home life is like, I can begin to implement culturally relevant
instruction to help the student connect their prior knowledge to new content and
the English language (Lara & Moore, 2009). Information about the parents
and home life, will also help me know how to communicate with the parents and
what resources to provide them.
Before
implementing any interventions and supports however, I would want to take
baseline data on the students: reading, writing, and math skills in both their
native language and English. I would also want to know the student’s baseline
English proficiency score. Then as interventions and supports are implemented,
I would continue to take data in these areas to monitor student progress and
determine effectiveness of the supports and interventions. Based on the data
collected, instructional modifications will be made to ensure the student’s
needs are being meet.
9/22/14
Why
Improve Policies at the School Level & Importance of Professional
Development
It
is important to focus on improving within-school policies and practices to
facilitate the learning of racially and ethnically diverse students because
each school’s student population is different. The federal and state government
can attempt to make laws that will benefit and fit all schools, but the truth
is there is, there is no “one size fits all.” Schools need to implement
policies and practices that best meet the needs of their unique student body.
Each school has different strengths, weaknesses, and needs and the policies
should reflect the schools unique culture needs. This way schools strive to
improve all students learning opportunities and outcomes (Hawley & Wolf, 2011).
I
also feel it is important for schools to implement professional development
opportunities related to teaching today's' exponentially growing diverse
student body. Professional development training's are a great way to encourage
teachers to demonstrate their commitment to lifelong learning. It has been
stated that many teachers have not been trained or prepared to teach and meet
all the needs of their diverse learners. With this being said, it is essential
that schools implement professional development opportunities related to
teaching strategies for English language learners and culturally diverse
students. This way all students have equal access to the curriculum and equal
opportunity to succeed (Rouse, 2014).
9/22/14
Why
Use Multiple Forms of Assessment
I
agree with Sarah Kotleba’s (2011) article, that states that standardized
multiple choice tests don’t give a true and full representation of what a
student knows and their though process when presented with a problem. When a
student gets an answer correct on a multiple choice test, it is hard to tell if
they are a good guesser or if they truly knew the answer. It is for these
reasons, that multiple forms of assessment are essential in determining what a
student knows and what areas the student needs further instruction. Kotleba
(2011) explains that many assessments are starting to incorporate written free
response portions. I think this is a step in the right direction because it
gives elevators a better idea of what a student knows, but I know from personal
experience that many of my students lack the writing skills and endurance to
express all their knowledge in writing. It is hard to create a content
assessment that is not also assessing a student English proficiency skills.
This is why in my classroom; I also included hands on activities (labs),
portfolios, oral assessments, and rubrics as ways to assess my students’
knowledge and skills. My use of different assessments also sends the message to
my students, that I value all their expressive skills: writing, verbal
communication, and kinesthetic abilities which is why it is important to work
on them all. By teaching by multiple means of representation and assessing in
multiple ways I can ensure students are developing a more full and in-depth
understanding of the content.
9/22/14
My
Future Plan for Evaluating/Assessing Students
This
course has solidified knowledge that multiple choice tests and standardized
tests are not adequate assessments to get a full understanding what skills a
child has and what content they understand (Sarah Kotleba, 2011). A child may
know the content on a multiple choice test, but because they didn't understand
the questions because the lacked the English proficiency or experience with the
testing format they may fail the test. When a student gets an answer wrong on a
multiple choice test, the elevator does not know if the student didn't know the
content or did not understand the question. This is vital information when it
comes to making instructional decisions. It is for these reasons that I plan to
continue to use multiple forms of assessments with all my students. I know from
personal experience that assessments such as: rubrics, portfolios, hands-on
activities (labs), oral assessments, and written responses should be used and
valued in the classroom. I have some students who may have a lot of knowledge
about a topic, but don’t have the writing skills for example, to do well on a
writing assessment. Again which is why, a student should be allowed to
demonstrate their knowledge through: oral communication, written communication,
and kinesthetic demonstrations. This way all students equal opportunity to
succeed (Rouse, 2014).
10/6/14
Personal
Culture Snapshot - Strengths and Weaknesses
One
of the first steps to building an understanding and relationship with our
diverse students is to identify and confront our personal biases (Gomez, 2007).
In addition it is important to self-assess the currently practices in place to
meet the needs of diverse learners to assess strengths and areas for
improvement. Based on the Culture Snapshot Checklist provided by American
College of Education (see Appendix A for full checklist), I found I have
strengths in the area of delivering culturally sensitive curriculum,
instruction, and assessment. However, I need to continue to improve in the
areas of: valuing culture and diversity, leading for cultural inclusion, and
engaging the culturally diverse community.
Culture
Snapshot: Analyzing Data
After
taking the culture snapshot self-assessment I realize I do very little in
response to culturally and linguistically divers students, families, and
communities (see Appendix A for full checklist details). Like many teachers
today, I am a white, English speaking, female teacher who comes from the middle
class. The town I grew up in and the town I now teach in is very homogenous.
Since I have been a kid, I have been surrounded by people who share the same
linguistic and cultural backgrounds as I. It was not until college that my
friend group diversified and caused my knowledge and understanding of different
cultures to grow. I like to think of myself as an open and accepting person of
people and cultures that are different from my own, but my lack of personal
experience with people from different cultures has limited my knowledge of
cultural norms and resources available.
Based
on the cultural snapshot self-assessment I my strengths are in the category of
delivering culturally sensitive curriculum, instruction and assessment. In
particular I feel I am confident in my abilities to implement different
researched based activities that account for a verity learning styles and
levels of English proficiency. I am a special education teacher and I have
learned that utilizing Universally Designed learning strategies helps meets the
needs of students with learning disabilities in addition to ELLs (Brand,
Favazza, & Dalton, 2012). As a continuum to teaching using multiple means
of representation, I’m also am confident in my abilities to implement a verity
of different assessment techniques. For both English language learners and
students with disabilities, I know standardized assessments don’t always give a
full and accurate representation of what a student knows. As a result I
implement a verity of formative assessments in addition to multiple choice
assessments (Lenski, Ehlers-Zavala, Daniel, & Sun-Irminger, 2006).
The
cultural snapshot self-assessment also reviled that I can benefit from growth
in the areas of: valuing culture and diversity, leading cultural inclusion, and
engaging the culturally diverse community (see Appendix A). As a high school,
special education, algebra 2 and physical science teacher, I often struggle to
find time and ways to tie culture and different cultural events and
celebrations into my lessons. In general the school I teacher at, is very
homogenous and as a result none of our professional development is dedicated to
meeting the needs of culturally diverse students. I feel I have very little
knowledge of different resources available to support my students, their
families, and myself. As a result I feel I can continue to learn more about my
students’ cultures, my students’ home lives, and how to incorporate more parent
and community involvement in my classroom.
Conclusion
Through
the use of the culture snapshot self-assessment I found I have strengths in the
area of delivering culturally sensitive curriculum, instruction, and
assessment. However, I need to continue to improve in the areas of: valuing
culture and diversity, leading for cultural inclusion, and engaging the
culturally diverse community. This assessment act as baseline data and my first
step in creating an action research plan to better meet the needs of diverse
students.
Appendix
A
Culture
Snapshot Checklist
Culture
Snapshot Checklist
|
Rating
|
||||
Valuing
Culture and Diversity
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
I
consider cultural factors, such as language, race, ethnicity, and customs,
when selecting curriculum materials and designing and delivering instruction.
|
1
|
||||
I
acknowledge, respect, and respond to the culturally and linguistically
defined needs of students and their families.
|
4
|
||||
I
evaluate student outcomes on the basis of culturally relevant I objectives.
|
1
|
||||
I
check for inclusive/exclusive practices and support celebrations/events that
reflect various cultures and introduce the community in new cultures.
|
1
|
||||
Average
Score: Valuing Culture and Diversity
|
7/5=
|
1.4
|
|||
Culture
Snapshot Checklist
|
Rating
|
||||
Learning
for Cultural Inclusion
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
I
regularly collect and analyze demographic and statistical information on
culturally and linguistically diverse students for use in planning.
|
1
|
||||
I
allocate resources and deliver services in a manner that addresses the needs
of culturally and linguistically diverse students.
|
4
|
||||
I
receive professional development that enables me to build culturally
competency, cross-cultural communication, and conflict resolution skills.
|
1
|
||||
I
articulate and implement the school’s mission statement and goals relative to
cultural competency.
|
4
|
||||
I
am proficient (or I have the services of others who are proficient) in
heritage languages of students who are able to communicate with them and
their families easily to meet needs.
|
3
|
||||
I
am knowledgeable about local, state, and federal statutes and policies that
relate to culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families.
|
2
|
||||
I
advocate for programs, policies, and services that support culturally and
linguistically diverse students.
|
3
|
||||
I
have a clear process for evaluating the short-term and long-term
effectiveness of the services I offer relative to culturally and
linguistically diverse students.
|
1
|
||||
I
communicate with and involve culturally and linguistically diverse families
in all school and classroom activities.
|
2
|
||||
I
have experiences and skills in serving culturally diverse students.
|
1
|
||||
Average
Score: Learning for Cultural Inclusion
|
22/6
|
2.2
|
|||
Culture
Snapshot Checklist: Delivering
|
Rating
|
||||
Engaging
the Culturally Diverse Community
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
I
possess the knowledge and experience to work effectively with culturally
diverse students, their females, and the community.
|
2
|
||||
My
parent involvement program promotes inclusion of all culture and language
groups.
|
1
|
||||
I
engage with the community on special projects and activities that address
cultural issues.
|
1
|
||||
I
communicate with culturally diverse businesses and other community
organizations to actively seek their support for my culturally and
linguistically divers students.
|
1
|
||||
I
seek information form culturally diverse businesses and other community
organizations about the needs of students and their families and the
community resources available to them.
|
1
|
||||
I
consult with organizations, advocates, and community experts before
finalizing activities that may have cultural impact.
|
2
|
||||
I
consult with culturally diverse community organizations to learn more about
the effectiveness and responsiveness of my services.
|
1
|
||||
Average
Score: Engaging the Culturally Diverse Community
|
9/7
|
1.3
|
|||
Culture
Snapshot Checklist
|
Rating
|
||||
Delivering
Culturally Sensitive Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
I
actively purse information about my students’ values, beliefs, customs, and
languages
|
2
|
||||
I
consider student cultures and heritage languages when developing/selecting
curricula and planning instruction.
|
2
|
||||
I
examine district curricula and search for cultural connections and ways to
infuse global concepts, vocabulary, and events into my teaching.
|
1
|
||||
I
work with culturally and linguistically diverse students to maintain cultural
support in their families and communities.
|
1
|
||||
I
empower culturally and linguistically divers students by using their cultural
supports in their families and communities.
|
3
|
||||
I
apply my knowledge of culture competence in decisions about curricula,
instruction, and assessment.
|
2
|
||||
Literature
selections and other teaching materials reflect a variety of cultural and
linguistic perspectives.
|
1
|
||||
Curricula
integrate global views, geography, and history.
|
1
|
||||
Linguistic
and content objectives are addressed for second language learners.
|
2
|
||||
I
apply principles of differentiated instruction, research strategies that
account for various learning styles and second language learning and teaching
strategies.
|
5
|
||||
I
integrate technology into the teaching-learning process.
|
4
|
||||
I
connect teaching and learning to student culture, heritage language, and
prior knowledge.
|
4
|
||||
I
use authentic students assessments to compliment standardized tests
|
5
|
||||
I
use both formative and summative performance evaluations.
|
4
|
||||
I
utilize support programs to prompt achievement and provide interventions for
at-risk students.
|
4
|
||||
Average
Score: Delivering Culturally Sensitive Curriculum, Instruction, and
Assessment
|
41/15
|
2.7
|
|||
10/16/14
Personal
Experience with Diverse People
I
grew up in a suburb of Chicago surrounded by people very similar to me (white,
middle class, and Christian). I had a few close friends who were of Asian and
Indian decent, but they came from families who had been in the United States
for many generations and were much assimilated into the American ways. It was
not until College that I gained the opportunity to meet and become close
friends with people who came from cultural and economic statuses than I. During
my sophomore year of college I took a class to be a RA (residence advisor) that
was dedicated to discussing diversity and how to create an accepting and
welcoming community. It was through this class, that I was first pushed to
knowledge my ways of life and compare and contrast my life with people who were
different than me in a safe an open environment. Through guiding questions from
our instructor, I learned about white privilege and ways my peers where
affected by being a different culture growing up. Without this class and the
opportunity to become friends with people who were different than me I think I
would continue to be ignorant to many of the challenges and jobs being a part
of different cultural groups and bring. Janes (2011) writes how as a college professor
teaching about British Culture to students from the US, he aims to elevate his
students’ ignorance and stereotypes by leading this students through a process
that has student reflect on their preconceptions and compare them to what they
are learning in class. As part of this process Janes (2011) has his student
create a definition of a particular culture. From there he asks the students to
discuss why they have defined a particular sub group in this manner. With these
preconceptions in mind, he asks his students to explore the particular culture
in depth for themselves and see if their preconceptions change. I think Janes’s
teaching strategy is particularly effective because his students, like many
teachers today, are unaware of their biases and stereotypes unless specifically
asked to reflect and explore different cultures on their own terms. Students
from non-dominant cultures can benefit from their teachers (often from the
dominant culture) reflecting on their biases in hopes of eliminating them.
10/27/14
Interactive
Math Notebooks
I
am a high school special education teacher who teacher who attempts to teacher
Algebra 2 skills to a very diverse group of students. With math it is very easy
to fall into doing worksheet after worksheet and not maximize the students’
full brains and engagement. Students then also struggle to generalize and
see the connection between what is on the worksheet and how they will use math
in real life. Lombardi (2008) tells us the importance and effectiveness
of having the students participate in activities that incorporate both sides of
their brain (analytical side and creative side). This is why I am
starting to incorporate interactive math notebooks this year. Mollozzi
and Heilbronner (2013) explain that interactive notebooks increase students’
understanding because they are able to synthesize and reflect on the content
they learned. They are then able to demonstrate their knowledge through
nonlinguistic representations (graphs, charts, pictures, creative writing,
etc). Through these visual representations the students are engaging in
metacognitive instructional strategy that will increase their understanding.
Interactive notebooks allow ESL s to express their knowledge even if they don’t
have the English proficiency to do so. The interactive notebooks also act as a
great formative assessment for teachers such as myself to track student
progress (Mollozzi & Heilbronner, 2013) . So far in my classroom, my
students have really enjoyed combining both their creativity and math skills. I
also feel my students are more engaged and awake during class. I plan to
continue to incorporate interactive student notebooks into my math
class.
11/3/14
Heterogeneous
Grouping & Increasing Collaboration Among Students
The
case study from Pransky and Bailey (2002/2003) that is most relevant to my
current teaching-learning situation is case study one were the teachers are
struggling to get their students to feel comfortable and value collaborating in
heterogeneous groups to complete a task. I am a high school special education
teacher who works in both inclusion classrooms and pull-out settings. In theory
a weaker student should increase their understanding by working with a stronger
student, but this is often not the case. Often times, because there is no
positive or negative reward/consequence for helping each other, the students
don’t care if the other student understands the content. Especially when grades
are based on individual performance there is no motivation to work together. I
have found I need to both explicitly teach how to work collaboratively and
create an incentive for my students to benefit from working in heterogeneous
groups. McAtavey and Nikolovska (2010) , explain collectivism to be a group of
people who: care about each other’s actions, sharing their materials and
resource, accepting each other’s views and opinions, and working together to
perform a task. This is my goal for my students, but without modeling and
creating moral and/or tangible incentives many students will not demonstrate
these behaviors. It is only through ongoing inquiry and reflection that I can
continue to identify barriers to my students’ education and research ways to
eliminate these barriers. Each year my students bring new and different
barriers to the educational setting which is why ongoing inquiry and reflection
is essential to increase student outcomes.
11/17/14
Why
Learn about Linguistics?
As
much as I am not enjoying learning about linguistics to the extent presented in
the weekly presentations and readings, I realize this in depth awareness and
knowledge will only better help me support my students. While working with ELLs
it is important for me to make note of the phonemes, spellings, words, tenses,
pronunciations, letters, etcetera that my students struggle. By analyzing my students’
errors I can better predict and support their language development. I can look
at my students’ errors and I can try to determine if the mistakes are similar
to a native speaker’s language development (such as over generalization
mistakes), because a particular sound does not exist in the student’s native
language, or because a student is intertwining phonemes from both their
languages.
Many
schools serving ELLs have minimal resources and a shortage of highly trained
staff. Ideally a speech language pathologist would work with both a general
education teacher and ESL teacher to help identify a student’s language errors
and provide helpful instructional strategies. However, because often times
there is only one speech pathologist per district, it is a good idea for all
teachers to add obtaining knowledge of linguistic vocabulary to their
professional learning plans. This way if the speech pathologist is not around,
or there is no speech pathologist, the teacher can still identify language
errors and the possible cause; further allowing instruction to be focused the
students’ needs.
12/3/14
Correcting
ELLs Speech & Writing
In
an ideal classroom, where there was endless amounts of time and all the
students were motivated to improve, for each writing assignment I would
implement the following editing procedure:
1.
Students are given time in class to edit their own writing using a checklist/
self-evaluation form.
2.
Student’s trade papers with a partner and each student reads their partners
paper and writes comments and corrections in the side margins/on the paper.
(Sometimes the students will be instructed to give their partner corrective
feedback other times they will be instructed to just identity errors by
circling them, but not correcting the errors).
3.
The partners work together and fix the errors.
4.
The teacher will then read each student’s paper and provide feedback.
(Sometimes the teacher will be give corrective feedback other times they will
just identity errors by circling them, but not correcting the errors)
5.
The teacher will meet with each student to review the feedback.
6.
The students will make final corrections and submit their final draft for a
grade. ‘
Based
on Hyland and Hyland (2006) and my own experience I feel it is important for
students to be actively involved and self-directed and reflective learners.
Allowing students time to edit their own papers based on a provide rubric or
checklist, will encourage the students to self-assess. Then by working with
another student to edit their papers they are provided the opportunity to see a
sample writing on a similar topic. The partner edit also allows students to
practice both their social and academic language skills as the communicate on
how to correct each other’s papers. Having the students read each other’s paper
also provides a more meaningful and motivating audience. It was based on Hyland
and Hyland (2006) research that made me realize it is important to do a mix of
both direct corrective feedback and indirect corrective feedback. People
benefit from both modeling (Barlow & Frick, Barker, & Phelps, 2014) of
how to fix errors and times where they independently think of how to fix their
own errors. If the students just copy their student or teachers corrections,
their mind is not actively engaged in the correction process. In addition to
peer feedback I know from personal experience and from Hyland and Hyland (2006)
that students value and benefit from their teachers feedback. It is important
to pair the written feedback with the oral feedback because it allows the
teacher and student to engage in a conversation about the students writing and
progress. I know sometimes my comments on my students papers are very short and
might not be clear to my students. A student teacher conference would allow for
a dialogue about corrections. Lastly I feel it is important for students to be
given time to take the feedback they were given and make the corrections to
their paper. So many times I don’t get to go through and editing correction process
with my students because there is not enough time. There is just too much
content to get through. As a result my students may continue to make the same
errors. I always write comments on my students paper, but because I don’t
encourage my students to make corrections half the time I don’t think my
students even look at the comments I leave them. It is a sad reality.
When
it comes to correcting students’ spoken language Lyster (2004) research tells
us students benefit from-focused instruction (FFI) and corrective feedback. He
tells us FFI was more beneficial when it was paired with prompts from the
teacher to make corrections. The different prompts let the students know they
made an error, and then allowed the students the opportunity to self-correct.
By making in the students self-correct they are more likely to keep and
retrieve information from their long term memory verses their short term memory
(Lyster, 2004). Similar to when students write, it is important to help them
identify errors and then allow them opportunities to self-correct.
12/10/14
Advocating
for Our Students & Their Families
As
educators of second language learners it is our job to partner with our
students families to help their child reach common goals made together as a
team. As educators we act as the link between the langue and culture of the
school system and the language and culture of each family. With frequent
collaboration with the family about their student’s goals and how to achieve
those goals the chances of the child succeeding increases. Educators need to
familiarize themselves with the culture and value of the family and educate the
family on ways to increase or maintain student progress (Souto-Manning, 2006).
Before a parent starts belittling the value of their native language, parents
should be told the benefits of being bilingual, such as increased; job
opportunities, cognitive memory, creative problem solving skills, increased
academic success, and accepting of others (Paneque,2006). Parents should be
reassured that promoting and practicing literacy skills at home in their native
language is also beneficial to their child’s English literacy skills
(Paneque,2006). Sousa, Luze, and Hughes-Belding, (2014) did a study that showed
many parents of immigrant families’ preferred their child’s progress presented
or given to them in a written narrative format verses a graph or rubric. Parents
preferred this for a few reasons, one being they could take the paper home and
review it; the second is the narrative gives a more holistic view of their
child. When parents are only given quantitative data it does not show all the
behaviors and qualities that the family may also value and want to know about
their child. Worthy and Rodríguez-Galindo (2006) remind us that many parents of
immigrant families today may not have a high education have an abundance of
time, or be very wealthy, but they care and want to know how to help their
child be successful.
12/30/14
Writing Error Correction Debate:
In the debate on whether or not error correction in the writing of ELLs is effective, I disagree with John Truscott who says error correction is a waste of time, ineffective, and even harmful (Truscott, & Hsu 2008). In a study by Van Beuningen and Kuiken (2012) they found corrective feedback to be effective at improving both grammatical and non-grammatical skills on both revisions and future writing assignments. They also found evidence disproving Truscott’s claim that corrective feedback causes students to avoid increasing the complexity of their writing because they fear being corrected/making errors.
Personally, I agree with the statement, “error correction is valuable and is one of the things I am paying for when I take a course, whether or not I rewrite anything or have points taken off.” I feel practice writing, viewing sample writing/modeling, and teacher (or peer) feedback has contributed the most to my growth as a writer. However, because I have always been a very motivated student who wants to improve my skills, I have always put high value on my teacher’s feedback and actively tried to apply past feedback to new writing assignments. In my current teaching placement (co-taught, high school, physical science class), I don’t feel this is the case for many of my students. For one reason or another (limited time, prompting, emphasis, etc) When I hand back papers (labs in my case) my students just put them in their folders without even looking at them. This is frustrating because making comments on 80+ labs takes a long time! So I will admit, now I often just circle the error or part of the direction they missed and then subtract points or write a questions mark to save time. Then when I pass back the students labs, I admit to them I may not have explained why they got something wrong and to please come talk to me if they want more feedback on how to improve next time. Very rarely, will I get a student come up to me and ask for further explanation. With this being said, I feel for teacher feedback to be effective, the student receiving the feedback needs to want the feedback and be motivated to improve their skills. Otherwise, as Truscott claims corrective feedback is a waste of time. I feel age and maturity level play a big part in the effectiveness of feedback and depending on the student/class, lessons on why to value feedback and what to do with error correction may be need for students to grow in their maturity and understanding of ways to improve their academic success.
Writing Error Correction Debate:
In the debate on whether or not error correction in the writing of ELLs is effective, I disagree with John Truscott who says error correction is a waste of time, ineffective, and even harmful (Truscott, & Hsu 2008). In a study by Van Beuningen and Kuiken (2012) they found corrective feedback to be effective at improving both grammatical and non-grammatical skills on both revisions and future writing assignments. They also found evidence disproving Truscott’s claim that corrective feedback causes students to avoid increasing the complexity of their writing because they fear being corrected/making errors.
Personally, I agree with the statement, “error correction is valuable and is one of the things I am paying for when I take a course, whether or not I rewrite anything or have points taken off.” I feel practice writing, viewing sample writing/modeling, and teacher (or peer) feedback has contributed the most to my growth as a writer. However, because I have always been a very motivated student who wants to improve my skills, I have always put high value on my teacher’s feedback and actively tried to apply past feedback to new writing assignments. In my current teaching placement (co-taught, high school, physical science class), I don’t feel this is the case for many of my students. For one reason or another (limited time, prompting, emphasis, etc) When I hand back papers (labs in my case) my students just put them in their folders without even looking at them. This is frustrating because making comments on 80+ labs takes a long time! So I will admit, now I often just circle the error or part of the direction they missed and then subtract points or write a questions mark to save time. Then when I pass back the students labs, I admit to them I may not have explained why they got something wrong and to please come talk to me if they want more feedback on how to improve next time. Very rarely, will I get a student come up to me and ask for further explanation. With this being said, I feel for teacher feedback to be effective, the student receiving the feedback needs to want the feedback and be motivated to improve their skills. Otherwise, as Truscott claims corrective feedback is a waste of time. I feel age and maturity level play a big part in the effectiveness of feedback and depending on the student/class, lessons on why to value feedback and what to do with error correction may be need for students to grow in their maturity and understanding of ways to improve their academic success.
**Note:
See full citations/references on the "Reference" page.
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