Teaching Culture, Too

     This past week, both of my booperating teachers at Normal Community incorporated an aspect of Halloween into their lessons.  In ESL 2, Beginning ESL, Ms. Jones brought into the classroom the idea of using pumpkin in foods.  She showed pictures of pumpkin pie, seeds, muffins, flavored coffee, etc. and explained that the pumpkin is North American, which is why it might be rather new to some of the students.  I brought in pumpkin seeds for students to try and all except 2 or 3 students had not tried them before.  Each was able to try them.  I noticed that Abel, who is from Mexico, was not eating the shell.  Pumpkin seeds are actually meant to have the whole thing eaten.  Satoryu, from Japan, did not enjoy the pumpkin seeds.  We talked about the history of Halloween and related it to The Day of the Dead in Mexican culture.  Satoryu shared that in Japanese and Chinese culture, they celebrate Setsubun, which is where the father of the house puts on a mask and throws beans out the door to cleanse the house of evil spirits from the previouse year.  They also talked about and showed pictures of scare crows and halloween decorations.
     In ESL 1, basic ESL, Ms. Claricoates taught students about the carving of a pumpkin for Halloween and how it's a tradition.  She showed pictures of carved pumkins and talked about jack-o-lanterns.  This was difficult for the students to understand that they were pumpkins when they were plain, but were called "jack-o-lanterns" once they were carved.  Later in the week, Ms. Claricoates brought in a pumpkin for each student to carve in class and take home (there are only 3 students in this class).  Norma was overly excited that she was able to bring her "punkin" home but Edwardo did not care to.  Ms. Claricoates also picked a book about a skeleton having hiccups and all the ways he tried to get rid of them.  Students listened to the story once, and then a second time.  They had pieces of paper with sentences on them stating what happened on each page.  They had to put these in order when listening to the story the second time. 
     Through these lessons that incorporated or focused on Halloween, students were not only learning about new vocabulary, they were learning about American culture.  Through these lessons, both of my CT's made sure to ask students if they had anything that they celebrated in their culture that was like Halloween, or if they believed in ghosts, if they were dressing up, etc.  These questions placed value on the students' beliefs and their home culture.  They also showed that the teacher personally cared to learn about the students' culture.  This is vital in teaching a language because of the incorporation of teaching about culture.  Learning a second language will not be effective unless students are comfortable with their teacher and in the classroom.  This environment can only occur by asking questions like these, having students present about their culture, simply doing things that validate students' value of their own culture. 

Teaching Vocab is not the Writing Teacher's Job

What really grabbed my attention in Keith Folse's article was the plagerism point in the very beginning.  He discussed a student who was "genuinely surprised" by the teacher's question of plagerism in his paper.  Folse found that the student had written a good paper, but he had used his research and not cited quotes, therefore plagerising.  Folse brings up a very important point about the student; "He couldn't express these ideas better than the original author had."  Folse furthers his explanation of what the problem was in this students' writing, how, "In a research writing assignment, the goal is not to copy the original author's information but to use the strategies of paraphrasing, summarizing, and synthesizing.  Each of these strategies is complex and, at least in part, culturally based."  I found two things that came about from this situation, one not already brought up in the text.  This point is how we need to educate students about what it means to plagerise, not only to ESL students, but particularly them because of the cultural differences.  When we bring in ideas of other individuals' work and use them in our own work, that needs to be cited correctly so that the first author receives credit for their work.  This is often a misunderstanding in students' writing, simply not citing correctly.  The problem becomes more complex when ESL students are writing a paper, specifically a research paper that requires use of other peoples' ideas, quotes, etc. 
The second point from this situation, the author already brings about.  "...paraphrasing requires extensive vocabulary."  For someone learning a second language, a broad range of vocabulary requires practice and comes about over time.  Therefore, the problem of plagerism is bound to occur several times when assigning a writing assignment that requires outside research.  This also is a reason for educating students on what plagerism exactly entails and how to prevent it.  For ESL students particularly, instruction on what is expected must be very explicit due to the cultural differences.  Because "Vocabulary most definitely plays a critical role in successful writing," extensive help in portraying a message in writing with word usage must also play a part. 
I think that, depending on the level of English proficiency, something as large of an assignment as a research paper should not be graded so harshly nor be such a large part of a students' grade.  I think that practicing writing is much more pertinent to a student learning another language and not only their speaking fluency but also their skills and comfort level in writing.

ENG 394: Issues in the classroom

     This past week, several outside factors have been affecting students in a few of the ESL classes I am in.  Norma, who is from Guatemala, has talked about how her mother had to go to traffic court and was taken by immigration.  She doesn't know where her mom is and they don't have any way of contacting her.  Another instance of this is among two siblings.  Their uncle had a similar situation happen to him.  Also, another girl, Noami, in the ESL classes has a brother-in-law who is a lawyer and is trying to help both of these families legally. 
     After hearing of all this that is going on in the class, I couldn't believe that these students are able to compose themselves and still attend class.  Typically, for some other students, attendance is a regular problem.  They miss school or they come in very late.  However, the situation is different for Norma and the siblings dealing with these family issues.  They come to school everyday.  Their strength baffles me. 
     Everyone has issues within themselves that they go through, at home, in other relationships, etc.  ESL students typically have much more than this.  They deal with citizenship problems, not having parents or guardians to always be there for several reasons, having a language barrier while trying to fit in with peers, and don't always have the option to further their education. 
     All of these issues are outside factors but are brought into the classroom everyday.  I think that, in general, it is a good idea to "leave your bag at the door" (meaning to leave any emotional problems or issues going on at the door for the time in class) because students still can get to the objective of the lesson.  However, in severe cases, it might not be possible.  For ESL students, it might be a better idea to incorporate ways to cope with these issues or to educate students on them, such as options to further their education. 

Chapter 11: Language Learning Strategies

Under the "Suggestions for ESL Instructors" section, I picked out a few that I felt were most important according to our current issues involved in education, particularly in the field of ESL.  With all the politics, personal biases, differences in a range of things, etc., it's quite difficult to have all these people in one room trying to learn the same thing!  Which is why I believe that these three suggestions are the most important and have reason to be addressed. 
3. "..Some teachers globally classify each student as an 'A' student or a 'C' student, or as a 'quiet person' or a 'talkative person'... Look more closely at eacho f your ESL students regarding the features of 'good language learners' listed earlier..."
     This is an important suggestion because labeling students, especially ESL students, based on what we know about them (which isn't much much, due to the language barrier and cultural differences) is actually deabilitating to their learning English, or in learning to live in a new culture in general.
5. "You can teach students to orchestrate their use of strategies by having them systematically combine and use strategies relevant to the ESL task at hand.  For example, begin with a metacognitive strategy (such as planning for the task), then unite a cognitive with a social strategy (analyzing or practicing expressions in cooperation with other students), and finally combine a metacognitive strategy and an affective strategy (such as self-evaluating progress and self-rewarding for good performance)." 
     Creating relevance in each lesson provides students a reason to learn more about the content, situations where they would actually use this knowledge, and encourages engagement more.  Utilizing metacognitive, social, and affective strategies includes different ways to grasp whatever is being taught in the lesson.  Using all three of these for a task is a process, one that requires each to be scaffolded onto the other so that the student benefits in the result.
8. "Pay attention to the range of factors influencing strategy use among your ESL students and those you can personally affect...You can control the nature of the language tasks in the ESL classroom, and you have a great deal of influence on students' motivation level.  Take advantage of the factors that you can control, and be aware of those over which you have no control (e.g., cultural background, gender, age)."
     It is vital to bring about awareness, education, respect, and celebration on these factors that differ among several students in an ESL classroom.  They can really hurt a students' performance and overall experience in the class, not to mention their goal of learning another language and about the culture.  As ESL teachers, we must take this upon ourselves to utilize what we can control and find out more (learn more about cultural background, for instance).  With this information, we must educate others in the class so that value is paid to individual cultures that exist within the class.

Olsen's Chapter 8

The first thing about this chapter that grabbed my attention was the inconsistency of how the researcher said that the growth of immigrant and limited-English speaking students at the school was up to 24%, which is about 1 in 4, while the principal of Madison High School, George Pereira, said that it was more like 12 or 15%.  Later on, when the researcher checked the files, it had turned out that the Newcomer School "confirmed the 24 percent" (174).  This shows that the principal was not up to date on the growth of students of this level of English proficiency, which is connected to his understanding of need based this category of students are.  Therefore, the principal did not have the accurate knowledge of the amount of need required by this student population, nor the skills or resources required to accommodate.

Another thing that bothered me was the teachers' perception of Madison High and Bayview and how it's "diverse."  Several of the faculty make comments that include: "A lot of the cultures now don't value education," "We have more kids with family problems."  A specific instance is Lisa Stern's statment: "...It's the way schools are.  It's the way our society is... I think you just have to focus on your teaching, not get sidetracked..."  (177)  These comments are "rooted in the past, where there was more unity and more focus.  And concerns are expressed about 'groups' who are unwilling to adopt a common culture" (177).  This is problematic in that this perspective has expectations of these students from other places with different cultures to assimilate and drop a part of their identity.  We have found in our TESOL classes that it is vital in preserving a person's 1st language and not only respecting but giving value to their culture.  If not, these students will be turned off not only in the classroom, but we will be pushing them away and fostering negative feelings towards American culture.  They will have a much more difficult time learning English, as well as any language where teachers sort of take away a part of them, their identity, where they are rooted in. 

Practicum: Olsen's Chapter 7 and Literacy Observations

     The situation at Bayview in the very beginning of the chapter with Shafiqa illustrates how the student body of the high school is drastically changing and how the teachers are not preparing themselves for a different, more diverse classroom.  I understand where Mr. Boyd is coming from when he says, "How could I have known?"  If I were in this situation, I would feel guilty for not being understanding or open minded towards the student and her situation.  However, as Olsen states that the faculty are "white-skinned, speak only English, and many were raised in Bayview...and many speak privately of feeling 'invaded' by outsiders" (152).  This faculty, firstly, isn't being open or welcoming to how their student population is changing.  Therefore, they also aren't trying to educate themselves on the major differences that might exist between themselves and students, or student to student.  The chapter explains how "the ethnic makeup of the school has changed markedly in the past decade-from a primarily white student body to a student enrollment where there is no single majority ethnic or racial group, where dozens of different home languages are spoken, and almost one-fourth are immigrants" (151).  The difference between previous years to the present shows how the teachers, such as Mr. Boyd and Ms. Williams are favoring the homogenous population that the school used to have.  Perhaps they aren't meaning to do so, but they are because the homogenous population that previously populated the school was like them too, and probably didn't require as much work on their part (such as educating themselves on beliefs, language, communication, etc.). 
     Despite the wrong approach that either teacher had on the situation, I think that the first problem was that neither one asked, "Why? Why can't you eat today?"  This could have been for a multitude of reasons.  Maybe her family is struggling financially.  What if she was sick?  (The question here would have been, "Why are you not able to run today?")  In this case, it was something much more sensitive and deep.  It was her religious beliefs, which is very detrimental on the students' relationship with these two teachers as well as her view on other white, English speaking teachers, or the culture itself.

Literacy Observations:
     In my practicum, I was able to see several activities that promoted literacy.  One of my cooperating teachers, in any subject, always has students read aloud the dialogue.  Often times, in an ESL textbook that they are using, there is an example that includes a dialogue.  Therefore, the teacher assigns each student a role to read.  This is effective in such a small class that they have. 
     Another example of literacy was this activity that the teacher did in class.  She had three envelopes (there are three students in this class) and handed each student an envelope.  Inside were pieces of paper with different sentences on each.  The teacher then read aloud a very beginner reading level book.  At this time, students were only to listen and look at the pictures in the book.  Then, they went through the book a second time and they were to find the piece of paper with the sentence on it that described what was happening in the book at that moment.  They were to put these events in chronological order.
     A third activity I was able to see happen in the classroom was moreso encouraging students to write.  My other cooperating teacher printed out pieces of paper that looked like postcards.  She had them choose from a list of cities from around the world to research.  They couldn't be a city from their country.  The students had to research the city, then write a postcard to their teacher acting like they had visited there over the summer.  After this activity, the teacher had bought each student a postcard with an international stamp on each one so that they could actually write to their friends or family back home in their native country.  She later mailed them for them.

(Discussions/Reflections Questions):
1. The teaching methodology that seems most dominant is task-based.  Some of the characteristics include utilizing the computer for programs, websites, and pictures that enhance lessons.  The program that is mostly used practices pronunciation, such as vowels and consonants.  Role play is also brought into the lesson.  I think that the teacher would agree with this description because she uses every opportunity she has to bring in a prop or picture or something that helps grab students' attention and communicate more effectively. 
2. Students' interactions that are regular are typically between those that are Spanish speaking.  This population is the largest in the ESl classes at my placement.  They talk regularly in and out of class (I observe this in the hallways all the time).  I would say that the nature of the class discussions are IRF.  Other languages that are spoken include Japanese, Chinese, among others.  Discussions in other languages are typically between siblings, such as Ken and Sotoryu, who are from Japan and the only students from Japan.  Therefore, it is easiest to communicate with eachother.

How do I support a student's first language when I don't speak the language?

     As I was reading this article, I was thinking about what a great approach this teacher has in her classroom, especially in younger grades.  As a secondary education major, I felt lost as to how I would teach English to students as young as kindergarten and 1st grade.  However, this teacher incorporated things like having them take turns in teaching the class how to say something in their first language that really highlighted their culture instead of ignoring it.  I think that we as English teachers to students of other languages tend to focus on our content, English.  By doing so, we unintentionally take away value from not only students' first language but their culture, identity, etc.  By implementing presentations such as these by the students, we are giving that back to them but also showing that we as their teachers and their peers care to learn about their language, background, culture, etc. 
     As I read onto how the joke for the school newspaper done every two weeks, I thought, why not have a student assigned a date where they come up with a joke in their language?  Instead of choosing which is the most humorous.  By choosing which had the best reaction delves into difference in humor among cultures.  There is much more in this topic than what she did with it.  For a teacher whose approach is "loosey-goosey," I think that a unit could have been done on humor among different cultures.  Also, by assigning each student a different date to have a joke that would be published in the school newspaper, each student would be able to share what is funny to them or in their culture, not what is funny in our American culture. 
     This "loosey-goosey" term is simply another teacher's way of describing this practice.  I think that creating a unit on plumbing and water was creative.  The best part about this approach is that these units are created based on the students' interests.  Also, not only are they learning English, but they are learning about the American culture and things that might be different in the United States.  These are very important things that I don't think are focused on teaching ESL students and need more of. 

Activating Intuitive Heuristics

This chapter was very vague to me.  I could see the different ideas and approaches to teaching grammar and such, but what I didn't see were examples or strategies that teachers could really learn from and take into their classroom.  The ones that were included weren't detailed enough to come to an understanding from. 

For the Deductive teaching method, I think Chomsky is right in that "one does not learn the grammatical structure of a second language through 'explanation and instruction' beyond the most rudimentary elements, for the simple reason that no one has enough explicit knowledge about this structure to provide explanation and instruction" (183).  I think that there are two things here that I noted about this method and Chomsky's arguement.  First, although explanation and instruction are vital elements in teaching any concept, they are simply not enough in teaching grammar, especially when the audience is learning grammar in their second language.  It is not fair to expect students to come to a full understanding about all the factors that affect grammar and the exceptions and such from only explanations and instructing them.  They need far more than that.  In my Teaching of Writing class, we have been learning how the most effective way to teach grammar and that is most conducive to students' learning grammar isn't through worksheets, specific lessons solely on grammar, but it is through example.  A great example of this would be to use students' writing and explain what is done correctly or incorrectly grammar-wise and pull the teaching out of something else.  Using students' own writing makes them more involved/engaged because it is their own, that they are trying to improve and for ESL students, it is also how they sound when conversing and not only how they sound when on paper.  This is important to note because ESL students have factors that play into their learning because of the way they speak, such as being embarrassed, or being over-corrected so much that they don't want to volunteer again, or their accent.  So, learning through their own writing is beneficial in that they are able to learn correct grammar for an academic paper, and they are also learning about how to use it conversationally (because native speakers tend to sound grammatically correct but don't know how to use correct grammar usage in a paper). 

Second, Chomsky states that individuals don't have enough explicit knowledge to be instructing in certain ways about grammar, especially to ESL students.  I think that this is a fair argument, especially since language is constantly changing.  However, with this in mind, we as ESL teachers need to pick and choose the important grammar concepts that we will focus on for our students according to their grade, level of proficiency in English, whether it is for academic use or conversational use, etc.  Narrowing down these factors will help us choose what to focus on, what our objective should be for our students to learn, and our approach.  In the case of the two episodes shared in this chapter, the second was much more effective (on pages 179-181).  The first focused on adverbial clauses and the teacher utilized a textbook and sentences where the students were to fill in the blank on their own, before the actual lesson.  The second focused on complex sentences with cause and effect relationships.  The teacher used a cartoon where the series of actions will cause a final result.  She asked guiding questions and this activity was the opener to a more detailed, explanatory unit on grammar.  This approach was inductive. 

I think that both, inductive and deductive methods are missing a little bit of each other in creating an effective approach to teaching grammar.  However, I also feel that since grammar has to do with ever-changing language, that approaches to teaching it will also be ever-changing. 

Olsen's Chapter 6

I have always been aware of the different perceptions of education and how it is valued here in America.  However, I don't think I paid enough attention to it, based on the differences by background or among ESL students compared to native students.  In "The Pleaseures and Prices of Freedom" on page 124, the section discusses girls from different places that describe American girls as "open" or "free" because "Most of the girls have limits to their movement and behavior.  These limits are imparted by tradition, culture, and fearful parents who wish to protect their daughters in the midst of a new land that is viewed as both violent and seductive."  The author describes how because students are so sheltered at home and are not allowed to experience extracurriculars or dances, their view of school changes to a social one.  This is different in that native born students dread going to school and can't wait to go home at the end of the day.  In my practicum experience, I have seen a version of this.  Norma, who is a freshman from Guatemala, along with several other ESL students, does not stay after school for activities because of her family's wishes.  She has other reasons such as transportation; she takes the bus to and from school every day.  However, I have seen Norma's perception of school as a social experience.  She often speaks in Spanish to fellow classmates not only because she is a beginner in learning English, but also because this is her conversing with her friends.  She also dresses quite well for a high school day.  On the first day that I went to Normal Community, Norma arrived wearing one outfit, then asked at the end of class to use the restroom.  She came back in a whole new outfit.  I found myself observing this as her value in how her peers were perceiving her.  Several high school teenagers are concerned with what they look like, especially in front of their friends.  However, Norma displayed this on a different level not only because of her changing of outfits or how she dresses well every day, but because she arrives and is excited to be at school, not for her education, but for the social interaction.  My CT has to tell Norma several times during class periods that she has to stop talking about her weekend and do her work.  She requries much individual attention because of this.  Fortunately, Norma has not had to lie to her parents about relationships or something on a more serious level.  She moreso values school as a place for social interaction, which affects her academics. 

I think that this difference in how school is viewed can be placed among American students as well.  Students who do not get enough attention at home might view school as a place for social interaction because there, they get individual attention and are listened to.  I do wonder, however, if ESL students or American students such as these were to have the ability to participate in something outside of school (a club, sport, or an activity of some sort), if they would continue to have the same social perception of school?  Or, would it change to the typical American-dreading-school view?