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.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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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