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Assessment Myth #2: We teach everyone equally in our school, and we don't need to know who is an English language learner and who isn't.
Reality: Educators need to know as much about students as possible so students are provided with the best educational experience possible.
I understand the myth because there is an aspect about giving different attention to students that somewhat singles them out. Therefore, treating students equally implies some aspect of inclusion, which is important in education and treatment of our students. It would also help with students that have come from another country with assimilating into American culture. Students at certain ages also have a desire to fit in with their peers. By including ESL students in regular curriculum without any specialized attention, they are "fitting in" with other native speakers.
However, for these teachers believing in this myth, "we believe that they are in danger of doing their students a tremendous disservice by not recognizing that all students have special strenths and needs. Being a nonnative English speaker is one of those special needs" (99). The text also points out that ELL students' prior education and culture impact their English proficiency and their academics. By pretending that ELL students don't have different needs than native English speakers denies them the opportunity of receiving an equal education because they are not getting the help and services required for them to perform to the best of their abilities.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Shohamy's Assessment
Harley et al did a study on whether grammar, discourse, and sociolinguistic competence are three separate entities. Schachter's reactions:
"She argued that discourse should be defined more clearly as pragmatic knowledge, since discourse knowledge involves both cultural conventions and appropriate grammatical choices" (202).
I really like this description of what discourse should entail; that it's learning about culture as well as aspects about the language, such as grammar. Something that connects these two is using idioms in communicating. This involves understanding a bit about the culture, how they communicate, as well as grammatical structure.
"Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether the small number of items chosen to test the discourse trait truly tested what the researches had assumed" (202).
This quote illustrates how a test simply cannot accurately assess a language learner's discourse competency. It further touches on how testing will not assess what is intended to assess, which therefore clouds the administrator's knowledge of the language learner's skills and knowledge of the language.
I think that we simply need to come up with more creative ways to assess language learners because we cannot test communicative knowledge without inadvertantly testing grammar and syntax. Similarly, if we are testing on grammar, we know that grammar in isolation is not always effective. If we are using student writing to assess grammar, this involves sentence structure. I think that this somewhat implies that we should be testing overall proficiency or several aspects in one test, but I think that this is also problematic. I think that assigning writing, which involves several different genres of writing, and authentic situations such as bringing language learners into the community to use their oral language (speaking and listening) skills would involve several aspects within these assessments. However, this might show that I really advocate for communicative competence as a goal for a language learner. There are several ways to assess students based on different goals of language learners, what we are testing, and the teacher's views. Therefore, in this abundance of different ways to assess language learners, there are many that could be considered "effective," or "accurate" based on what we are trying to assess.
"She argued that discourse should be defined more clearly as pragmatic knowledge, since discourse knowledge involves both cultural conventions and appropriate grammatical choices" (202).
I really like this description of what discourse should entail; that it's learning about culture as well as aspects about the language, such as grammar. Something that connects these two is using idioms in communicating. This involves understanding a bit about the culture, how they communicate, as well as grammatical structure.
"Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether the small number of items chosen to test the discourse trait truly tested what the researches had assumed" (202).
This quote illustrates how a test simply cannot accurately assess a language learner's discourse competency. It further touches on how testing will not assess what is intended to assess, which therefore clouds the administrator's knowledge of the language learner's skills and knowledge of the language.
I think that we simply need to come up with more creative ways to assess language learners because we cannot test communicative knowledge without inadvertantly testing grammar and syntax. Similarly, if we are testing on grammar, we know that grammar in isolation is not always effective. If we are using student writing to assess grammar, this involves sentence structure. I think that this somewhat implies that we should be testing overall proficiency or several aspects in one test, but I think that this is also problematic. I think that assigning writing, which involves several different genres of writing, and authentic situations such as bringing language learners into the community to use their oral language (speaking and listening) skills would involve several aspects within these assessments. However, this might show that I really advocate for communicative competence as a goal for a language learner. There are several ways to assess students based on different goals of language learners, what we are testing, and the teacher's views. Therefore, in this abundance of different ways to assess language learners, there are many that could be considered "effective," or "accurate" based on what we are trying to assess.
ENG 394
Last week was my last week! So, I want to blog about the type of environment that has been created and fostered since day 1. Students feel so comfortable in room 238, with eachother, and with their teachers, that they discuss and even joke about citizenship status and family issues. An instance of this last week was in ESL 3, which is a difficult class because a couple students in there have been friends since grade school and therefore talk a lot, one student is on a behavioral contract, etc. We were discussing relationships and marriage and related this discussion to the reading. One of the boys made a joke for Pablo to marry my cooperating teacher, Ms. Jones, and then he could "get papers." Pablo responded with, "I already got papers!" Another boy responded to this by saying, "You do? Where'd you get 'em!?" Everyone started laughing at this, and Ms. Jones joked that they aren't something you can get at Dairy Queen. Vaiyron then said, "I got mine at Walmart, buy 1 get 1 free!" The class bursted out laughing even more after this. I thought this was very humorous but was hesitant to laugh because some of these students don't have papers, so this could be a rough subject. But in this class, they talk about it, and feel comfortable about it because they trust one another and their teachers.
Another example of student comfort is their involvement in International Club. There were tee shirts made with each language spoken in the classroom included on the back that said, "Kiss me, I'm international!" They wear these on Fridays, which is school spirit day. This involvement has included outside activities such as a dinner at Ms. Jones home, a field trip to Starved Rock, and they are going to see Breaking Dawn Thursday evening at midnight. I attended the dinner, and I didn't expect so many students to attend! Ms. Jones had a full house. This illustrates the togetherness and support within the ESL classroom.
This third example is on facebook. I have found that the majority of these students are friends with their teachers, and aren't worried about what they may or may not see, which is very surprising! They also aren't simply "friends." I am also friends with both of my cooperating teachers and their students write to them. This comfort level baffles me. I think the teachers express such a care and concern for their students, with providing a comfort level, that students feel invited and welcomed to the ESL classroom. This care and concern goes further in an example I witnessed on my last day. My CT's daughter was bit by a dog, and she was notified in class. Ms. Claricoates was very upset and on the phone because her daughter was getting stitches. She received a picture. (Her daughter is fine, no worries). Every student was asking if she was ok after this phone call, and Ms. Claricoates shared this picture with them. They were worried about their teacher's family members, which shows care.
I have had a wonderful experience in my practicum and hope to build this type of community in my classroom because then, it's much more than a classroom. It's a safe haven.
Another example of student comfort is their involvement in International Club. There were tee shirts made with each language spoken in the classroom included on the back that said, "Kiss me, I'm international!" They wear these on Fridays, which is school spirit day. This involvement has included outside activities such as a dinner at Ms. Jones home, a field trip to Starved Rock, and they are going to see Breaking Dawn Thursday evening at midnight. I attended the dinner, and I didn't expect so many students to attend! Ms. Jones had a full house. This illustrates the togetherness and support within the ESL classroom.
This third example is on facebook. I have found that the majority of these students are friends with their teachers, and aren't worried about what they may or may not see, which is very surprising! They also aren't simply "friends." I am also friends with both of my cooperating teachers and their students write to them. This comfort level baffles me. I think the teachers express such a care and concern for their students, with providing a comfort level, that students feel invited and welcomed to the ESL classroom. This care and concern goes further in an example I witnessed on my last day. My CT's daughter was bit by a dog, and she was notified in class. Ms. Claricoates was very upset and on the phone because her daughter was getting stitches. She received a picture. (Her daughter is fine, no worries). Every student was asking if she was ok after this phone call, and Ms. Claricoates shared this picture with them. They were worried about their teacher's family members, which shows care.
I have had a wonderful experience in my practicum and hope to build this type of community in my classroom because then, it's much more than a classroom. It's a safe haven.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
394: Inclusion
These past few weeks, another student has been joining the level 1 ESL class for about 15 minutes a day. His name is Israel and he is from Mexico. His English is extremely limited. He is in Special Ed. classes and has an aid, who doesn't speak Spanish, who has been with him since jr. high school at Kingsley. Israel gets grand mal seizures, which affect his brain and development, therefore he cannot take in information for long periods of time. This explains why he is in special ed. classes. However, only recently he has been put in an ESL class as part of his daily schedule, but for only 15 minutes and then he returns to his other class.
I'm sort of confused as to why he is only in ESL for a short amount of time everyday, when the class has only 2 other students and he would receive individualized attention, learning more ways of communication. Many times, ESL students are placed in special ed. classes because of their limited English. However, that is not the case for Israel. It's the opposite. He needs to be in ESL and isn't. What perplexes me even more is how he does his homework, actively listens in class, asks questions when he doesn't understand, etc. I doubt that any of these are happening due to his very limited English, which means that he sort of just goes through the motions of a school day. Students at my placement in ESL also have a study hall, called "Resource" where they go to their ESL classroom with their teacher who helps them with their homework, can reword tests and assignments, etc. Israel desperately needs this!
It got me thinking about how he in included into the regular curriculum in terms of language, but not up to his needs. He goes to classes where the focus isn't for ESL needs. They do accommodate for his needs that are to do with his seizures that affect his development. However, I wonder how far he could come with proper language teaching to help the rest of his education. Why is our system so difficult!?
Over the next few weeks, we will see his development (how much might be very slight, because he's only with us for 15 min!), so I'll update again.
I'm sort of confused as to why he is only in ESL for a short amount of time everyday, when the class has only 2 other students and he would receive individualized attention, learning more ways of communication. Many times, ESL students are placed in special ed. classes because of their limited English. However, that is not the case for Israel. It's the opposite. He needs to be in ESL and isn't. What perplexes me even more is how he does his homework, actively listens in class, asks questions when he doesn't understand, etc. I doubt that any of these are happening due to his very limited English, which means that he sort of just goes through the motions of a school day. Students at my placement in ESL also have a study hall, called "Resource" where they go to their ESL classroom with their teacher who helps them with their homework, can reword tests and assignments, etc. Israel desperately needs this!
It got me thinking about how he in included into the regular curriculum in terms of language, but not up to his needs. He goes to classes where the focus isn't for ESL needs. They do accommodate for his needs that are to do with his seizures that affect his development. However, I wonder how far he could come with proper language teaching to help the rest of his education. Why is our system so difficult!?
Over the next few weeks, we will see his development (how much might be very slight, because he's only with us for 15 min!), so I'll update again.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Topic Management-Kuma
The idea of giving students the freedom to choose possible topics as the basis for interaction was originally brought about by Hatch in 1978. The importance of this was later emphasized by van Lier and coined "topicalization" meaning a process that students take something from the teacher or another student and try to come up with the next topic from that. Benefits are illustrated in that it results in personalizing the complexity of the input to the learner's own level, better opportunities for negotiating meaning, and fostering motivation for more complex production of the student. "Assia Slimani (1989) found that learners benefites more from self- and peer-nominated topics than from teacher-nominated topics" (Kuma 120). This idea takes brings ideas in that need to be considered such as investment, relevant content, and motivation. Besides the benefits topicalization brings about in language learners, students will be more motivated to learn about something that they chose to learn more about; they showed a desire and have the interest. This leads into investment. When a student has more of a connection to the content, the result is that they will have more committment in their learning and the process of learning, specifically a second language, as a whole. Also, topicalization allows students to come up with possible topics as the basis of interaction. In this case, I think that the teacher should have to facilitate and monitor these so that lessons don't get too off track and can still scaffold. Therefore, it is the teacher's job to pick meaningful and relevant topics from students' options. From here, students would be learning something that they wanted to learn by showing interest, would have more investment in the material and the learning process as a whole, and would be learning content that is relevant and meaningful to their language learning. I think topicalization is great for native speakers and non native speakers in other content areas as well because the idea of having students show interest in what they want to learn (according to relevance in the subject) isn't necessarily language specific. It can provide benefits to Math (learning how many miles to the gallon a students' car takes), history (maybe one student really likes the Civil War period), English (some students might prefer poetry over essay writing, giving options), etc. Overall, I'd say I'm a fan of topicalization.
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