Sunday, November 14, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Poetry Slam
I really enjoyed going to the poetry slam! It was an event that I had never been to, and I liked seeing other types of talent that ISU has. I enjoyed the host! He was there for 'comic relief' between some really heart felt performances. I envy the people that performed because I don't think I could ever pour my heart out like that in front of a room full of people. Although I was not able to stay for the entire thing, I feel that I got a sense of the struggles that other types of people go through as i listened to their pieces.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Linguistic Diversity and Instructional Practices
In Ann Johns article "Linguistic Diversity and Instructional Practices", it is interesting to see the linguistic and educational differences between Hispanic generations. These descriptions emphasize the importance of being aware of your students’ abilities and what motivates them in order to cater to their educational needs.
This article also stresses the importance of making diverse students feel comfortable in the classroom, and ways to help them succeed. Many of the questions that Ann Johns brought up were helpful. Teachers need to think about how they can truly help students on the search for their identity. It’s sad to think that diverse students feel that they have to be stripped of their culture in order to fit into the ‘norm’. Johns states that as teachers, we need to “Discover who are students are”, and by putting value on getting to know their backgrounds, will give them a sense of pride in who they are. I liked how Johns gave advice on how to enhance the learning opportunities of all students. She gave prompts for how teachers can assist students in writing goals, as well as ways that the students can assess themselves, and promote learner autonomy.
This article also stresses the importance of making diverse students feel comfortable in the classroom, and ways to help them succeed. Many of the questions that Ann Johns brought up were helpful. Teachers need to think about how they can truly help students on the search for their identity. It’s sad to think that diverse students feel that they have to be stripped of their culture in order to fit into the ‘norm’. Johns states that as teachers, we need to “Discover who are students are”, and by putting value on getting to know their backgrounds, will give them a sense of pride in who they are. I liked how Johns gave advice on how to enhance the learning opportunities of all students. She gave prompts for how teachers can assist students in writing goals, as well as ways that the students can assess themselves, and promote learner autonomy.
Module 3- Integrating Language Skills
The Module 3 video discusses the significance of integrating specific language skills into a language classroom. It states that “the use of language for meaningful purposes requires the use of Integrating Language Skills. They spoke about receptive skills (listening and reading), productive skills (speaking and writing), as well as sub-skills (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and non-verbal skills).
In the video, there were 3 separate classrooms taped during the integration of these language skills. The students in the first classroom got to choose any picture from a magazine article to write about, and then present to the class. The students in this classroom used a combination of receptive and productive skills. I really liked the way this activity went, and how the students got to communicate actual information as opposed to rote memorization or conversation drills.
I think that integrating all of these language skills will be of utmost importance in my classroom. It’s clear to see that a collaboration of all of the skills will be the most effective way of teaching. Each skill enhances the other, so it would be silly to stick to just one. From these videos anyone can see that the use of natural language in listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills is the most authentic way to prepare students for real life social interactions.
In the video, there were 3 separate classrooms taped during the integration of these language skills. The students in the first classroom got to choose any picture from a magazine article to write about, and then present to the class. The students in this classroom used a combination of receptive and productive skills. I really liked the way this activity went, and how the students got to communicate actual information as opposed to rote memorization or conversation drills.
I think that integrating all of these language skills will be of utmost importance in my classroom. It’s clear to see that a collaboration of all of the skills will be the most effective way of teaching. Each skill enhances the other, so it would be silly to stick to just one. From these videos anyone can see that the use of natural language in listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills is the most authentic way to prepare students for real life social interactions.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Progress on Final project
I began observing in a Bilingual classroom last week. My classroom is 5th graders, whom all have gone through this Bilingual program from K-5. Unfortunately for me, at the 5th grade level, they are being taught 70% in English and 30% in Spanish. I was hoping to observe in a more immersion type classroom, and hopefully I will throughout this semester. Starting in kindergarten these students are taught in 90% Spanish 10% English, and as the years go on it decreases in order for the students to maintain quality reading, writing and speaking levels in both languages. I am really enjoying my time in this classroom. The students are allowed to read, write, or speak in either language at all times, and the teacher will accept the work. Each class period they have 'readers workshop', and each week they focus on a different aspect of evaluating something that they have read. About half of the class has chosen their readers workshop books in Spanish, so it has been fun for me to go around and have them read to me, as well as discuss and evaluate the book. Next class I am going to talk to the students about what they think of being in this type of school, and the advantages and disadvantages that they think about the program.
Kuma Ch. 6
“helping learners become autonomous is one way of maximizing their chances of success."
Kuma Chapter 6 discussed how difficult it is for a teacher to find ways to maintain their students’ motivation to learn. Although as teachers we can guide them in this direction, the students have to be “willing to learn”. As a teacher, you have to be subject to change your approaches and lessons in order to appeal to each specific learner. This may be difficult to go about if your students are only motivated by external factors (such as needing to pass for a credit.
Since I am going to be teaching Spanish in high schools, as well as teaching English to speakers of other languages, I think that it will be interesting to see both ends of the spectrum. From my experience, most students that take Spanish in high school only do so for a graduation requirement or for college acceptance, but typical EFL and ESL classes in the US contain students that are motivated to learn the language in order to somewhat ‘survive’ in The United States as practically monolingual culture. I would feel exceptionally appreciative to have each and every one of my students be internally motivated about learning, but that is just not realistic.
On page 140, Kuma gave ideas for how learners can become autonomous. He stated the importance of going beyond what they get in the classroom for additional language learning. I definitely agree with this and think it is of utmost importance to help provide your students with authentic materials and situations that will make their language learning relevant to their life. Also, promoting participation in cultural events and getting involved will help the language learner become autonomous.
Kuma Chapter 6 discussed how difficult it is for a teacher to find ways to maintain their students’ motivation to learn. Although as teachers we can guide them in this direction, the students have to be “willing to learn”. As a teacher, you have to be subject to change your approaches and lessons in order to appeal to each specific learner. This may be difficult to go about if your students are only motivated by external factors (such as needing to pass for a credit.
Since I am going to be teaching Spanish in high schools, as well as teaching English to speakers of other languages, I think that it will be interesting to see both ends of the spectrum. From my experience, most students that take Spanish in high school only do so for a graduation requirement or for college acceptance, but typical EFL and ESL classes in the US contain students that are motivated to learn the language in order to somewhat ‘survive’ in The United States as practically monolingual culture. I would feel exceptionally appreciative to have each and every one of my students be internally motivated about learning, but that is just not realistic.
On page 140, Kuma gave ideas for how learners can become autonomous. He stated the importance of going beyond what they get in the classroom for additional language learning. I definitely agree with this and think it is of utmost importance to help provide your students with authentic materials and situations that will make their language learning relevant to their life. Also, promoting participation in cultural events and getting involved will help the language learner become autonomous.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Kuma 8
This chapter really opened my eyes to intuitive heuristics and inductive teaching methods and how it shows to increase grammatical comprehension. Although I have been in Spanish and English classes my entire life, I had never really thought about the way the grammar of each language was being presented to me. After reading this chapter, it seems to me that each and every teacher I have had had chosen a deductive approach. In my lower level Spanish classes, where learning grammatical rules took place, I can recall always being spoon fed rules, rules, rules. They were either written on the board, or printed in our books for us to simply copy down. My teacher would always read aloud the rule, and we would listen.
I think that this chapter shows that students should be involved in higher level thinking and incorporating their own conclusions on grammar rules. It seems to me that the teachers should work as facilitators to prompt students to explain how they come about getting the ‘answer’ rather than giving it to them. This in turn will help them to find their own confidence in the language.
I think that this chapter shows that students should be involved in higher level thinking and incorporating their own conclusions on grammar rules. It seems to me that the teachers should work as facilitators to prompt students to explain how they come about getting the ‘answer’ rather than giving it to them. This in turn will help them to find their own confidence in the language.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sleeter Reading
p. 96 "Another strategy to alter the mix of who becomes teachers is to recurit and select only those who bring experiences, knowledge, and dispositions that will enable them to teach well in culturally diverse urban schools."
p. 6 "He (Haberman) has found that one can predict not only who will succeed in urban schools but also the degree to which they will succeed.."
Both of these quotes made me upset. I definitely agreed with a lot of the informaiton from this article stating that preservice teachers need to have multicultural experiences, and understand urban students in order to be successful in an urban school setting, but I do not think that being of color automatically makes you a better candidate than a white preservice teacher. These quotes made me upset because they are judging certain preservice teachers without giving them a chance to work in the schools, and learn from their experiences. Also, who is to say that a white preservice teacher has NO experiences or knowledge that could help them teach well in a culturally diverse school. I do not think that anyone is able to predict the outcome of any teacher. Teaching in any school is a struggle the first couple of years, and any teacher gets better at their position with years of experience. I definitely think that Illinois State is giving us the tools that we need as preservice teachers to be able to teach well in any school setting. This article had good points, but I think it lacked by discriminating and putting white student teachers at a disadvantage.
p. 6 "He (Haberman) has found that one can predict not only who will succeed in urban schools but also the degree to which they will succeed.."
Both of these quotes made me upset. I definitely agreed with a lot of the informaiton from this article stating that preservice teachers need to have multicultural experiences, and understand urban students in order to be successful in an urban school setting, but I do not think that being of color automatically makes you a better candidate than a white preservice teacher. These quotes made me upset because they are judging certain preservice teachers without giving them a chance to work in the schools, and learn from their experiences. Also, who is to say that a white preservice teacher has NO experiences or knowledge that could help them teach well in a culturally diverse school. I do not think that anyone is able to predict the outcome of any teacher. Teaching in any school is a struggle the first couple of years, and any teacher gets better at their position with years of experience. I definitely think that Illinois State is giving us the tools that we need as preservice teachers to be able to teach well in any school setting. This article had good points, but I think it lacked by discriminating and putting white student teachers at a disadvantage.
Final Project Progress
I had changed my final project from 'Observing in a public school' to 'designing a website', but I just was informed today that I have been placed in a bilingual classroom for TESOL clinical hours! Although I havent started, I now plan on observing in this classroom twice a week. I will journal my experience here and apply it to my final project for this class. I still have a lot to do, but hopefully I will get into the classroom soon!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Kuma Ch. 4
Learner Perceptions:
"Teachers and learners do not look at the same classroom event as a potential learning event" (p 77).
Before reading this chapter, I was aware that students and teachers have different points of views when it comes to learning, but I had never really thought about examples of this. I thought that Kuma gave a great example of learner perceptions on page 77 when the students were not yet prompted with a topic to converse about, and because of this, off-topic conversations were occurring in the target language. This is a positive example of teacher/student mismatch. By almost ‘tricking’ the students into speaking in the target language, learning is occurring without being forced into it. It’s more authentic and gives a practical use to the language. I can remember countless times while studying in Spain that before the teacher walked in, students were discussing what happened the night before, completely in Spanish. I guess I myself never realized the benefit of this un-prompted use of the target language, and how comfortable it made me using the language by talking about things that were important me, rather than having to practice the language through required classroom activities.
Potential Mismatches:
On p. 79- “the learners spoke most highly of the news reviewing task, which, from the teacher’s perspective, “hardly deserved mention””. I think that this is a great example of how teachers can begin to close the gap between teaching agenda and learning outcomes by centering their lesson on the interests of the learners. In order to reduce the amount of other potential mismatches between the student and teacher, the teacher must do some research on the students’ cultural background. This will help eliminate mismatches in class discussions and activities that involve differences in culture. These teachers also need to understand that the students have a limited proficiency in the target language. I think that this will come with years of experience in teaching ESL or EFL, as the teacher will begin to see similarities in what mistakes students make, or what words are continually misused in order to signify a certain point that they want to get across. It is also important that the teacher has a good understanding of Standard English. As native speakers of English, we can be partial to teaching words that we are most comfortable using, and teachers of ESL or EFL need to realize that these words are not always aligned with the Standard English that these students could have previously learned.
"Teachers and learners do not look at the same classroom event as a potential learning event" (p 77).
Before reading this chapter, I was aware that students and teachers have different points of views when it comes to learning, but I had never really thought about examples of this. I thought that Kuma gave a great example of learner perceptions on page 77 when the students were not yet prompted with a topic to converse about, and because of this, off-topic conversations were occurring in the target language. This is a positive example of teacher/student mismatch. By almost ‘tricking’ the students into speaking in the target language, learning is occurring without being forced into it. It’s more authentic and gives a practical use to the language. I can remember countless times while studying in Spain that before the teacher walked in, students were discussing what happened the night before, completely in Spanish. I guess I myself never realized the benefit of this un-prompted use of the target language, and how comfortable it made me using the language by talking about things that were important me, rather than having to practice the language through required classroom activities.
Potential Mismatches:
On p. 79- “the learners spoke most highly of the news reviewing task, which, from the teacher’s perspective, “hardly deserved mention””. I think that this is a great example of how teachers can begin to close the gap between teaching agenda and learning outcomes by centering their lesson on the interests of the learners. In order to reduce the amount of other potential mismatches between the student and teacher, the teacher must do some research on the students’ cultural background. This will help eliminate mismatches in class discussions and activities that involve differences in culture. These teachers also need to understand that the students have a limited proficiency in the target language. I think that this will come with years of experience in teaching ESL or EFL, as the teacher will begin to see similarities in what mistakes students make, or what words are continually misused in order to signify a certain point that they want to get across. It is also important that the teacher has a good understanding of Standard English. As native speakers of English, we can be partial to teaching words that we are most comfortable using, and teachers of ESL or EFL need to realize that these words are not always aligned with the Standard English that these students could have previously learned.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Kuma 3
In Chapter 3, Maximizing Learning Opportunities, I really liked the opening quote. "We cannot really teach a language; we can only create conditions under which it will develop in the mind in its own way." This quote really showed me that the students have to be committed and involved in order to acquire a language, and that it is not a one way job of the teacher. Before reading this chapter, I was entirely focused on the success of a classroom coming from making great lesson plans, having a structured syllabus, and being able to manage the classroom. I was putting all of the pressure on myself, and not taking into consideration that “learning is primarily a personal construct controlled by the individual learner”. I also really liked the quote by Dick Allwright stating that classroom instruction is “the interactive process whereby learning opportunities are created.” I think it is important to discuss with your students in advance that in order for the class to be successful, they need to take advantage and participate in these learning opportunities.
It makes sense that as teachers we should be making necessary changes to our lesson plans according to “how the lesson is unfolding”. I thought it was interesting when the chapter stated that as the teacher makes these changes, it is providing opportunities for the teacher to explain something in the target language. This makes for an environment when learners ask questions using the target language, and are creating potential learning for the entire classroom.
I liked the idea of the “built-in-syllabus”. I think this is something that I would like to try with my students, as it lays out important material, and the students can choose that they want to learn about. I think that this will make for an excellent learning environment because the students know from the start that they are taking part in the learning process by choosing what they learn. This will also help them to create their own path to learning.
I loved the quote that “textbooks should function as source-books rather than course-books.” All of my life in school the teacher has played the role of the 'information giver', and as students we played the role of basically memorizing the textbook glossary. Sadly, nothing more was ever expected of us. I believe that in language learning both teacher and student have to be in the learning process 100% in order for a new language to be learned.I learned alot from this chapter on how to go about preparing for a lesson in my classroom, and I will be using these tactics in the future.
It makes sense that as teachers we should be making necessary changes to our lesson plans according to “how the lesson is unfolding”. I thought it was interesting when the chapter stated that as the teacher makes these changes, it is providing opportunities for the teacher to explain something in the target language. This makes for an environment when learners ask questions using the target language, and are creating potential learning for the entire classroom.
I liked the idea of the “built-in-syllabus”. I think this is something that I would like to try with my students, as it lays out important material, and the students can choose that they want to learn about. I think that this will make for an excellent learning environment because the students know from the start that they are taking part in the learning process by choosing what they learn. This will also help them to create their own path to learning.
I loved the quote that “textbooks should function as source-books rather than course-books.” All of my life in school the teacher has played the role of the 'information giver', and as students we played the role of basically memorizing the textbook glossary. Sadly, nothing more was ever expected of us. I believe that in language learning both teacher and student have to be in the learning process 100% in order for a new language to be learned.I learned alot from this chapter on how to go about preparing for a lesson in my classroom, and I will be using these tactics in the future.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Personal experience of language approaches
As I have been taking Spanish from the 7th grade until the present, I have experienced many different approaches to learning a language. As the learner, my high school Spanish teachers had a great impact on my learning. They were never married to one method of teaching, and made the classes interesting by approaching language as something fun for us to learn.
I have always felt comfortable learning language with the teacher using a combination of IRE, group work, presentational communication, as well as a bit of lecture. I think that not one of these methods would work alone, and it’s the sole use of one method that “numbs the mind” so to speak. When a teacher using only one method to get through to their students, this is when the students become unengaged and bored with the material. There are many diverse learners, and as a teacher, you need to reach as many students as possible by using a combination of methods.
I have always felt comfortable learning language with the teacher using a combination of IRE, group work, presentational communication, as well as a bit of lecture. I think that not one of these methods would work alone, and it’s the sole use of one method that “numbs the mind” so to speak. When a teacher using only one method to get through to their students, this is when the students become unengaged and bored with the material. There are many diverse learners, and as a teacher, you need to reach as many students as possible by using a combination of methods.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Post 1
I am a Spanish Teacher Education major with a TESOL minor. When I finish my degree, I will have a k-12 certificate. With this being said, my dream job would be to teach in an Elementary School as a Spanish teacher. I am aware that this will be a hard job to find as some schools are not funded enough in the language arts in order to start language learning at a young age, but I love the Spanish language, as well as teaching to younger children, so that would be a perfect job for me.
Having TESOL as my minor, I would also love to teach english to younger children that are new to the US. As a future TESOL teacher, I value helping my students to better understand the information they will be learning in their new schools, as well as help them with a comfortable transition into the school.
As a future language teacher in general, I extremely value culture. I think that as a language teacher I want to instill in my students' minds that learning about and accepting the culture of other ethnic groups is of utmost importance. I believe that TESOL is an important job because it will help students that cannot understand the material being taught to them in Enlgish speaking classrooms, and it will allow them to succeed in these schools. I think that after taking this course that I will learn how to assess the progress of the students that I will have. I will be more confident with my upcoming profession, and I will be able to see the practical uses of teaching TESOL.
Having TESOL as my minor, I would also love to teach english to younger children that are new to the US. As a future TESOL teacher, I value helping my students to better understand the information they will be learning in their new schools, as well as help them with a comfortable transition into the school.
As a future language teacher in general, I extremely value culture. I think that as a language teacher I want to instill in my students' minds that learning about and accepting the culture of other ethnic groups is of utmost importance. I believe that TESOL is an important job because it will help students that cannot understand the material being taught to them in Enlgish speaking classrooms, and it will allow them to succeed in these schools. I think that after taking this course that I will learn how to assess the progress of the students that I will have. I will be more confident with my upcoming profession, and I will be able to see the practical uses of teaching TESOL.
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