Myths and Realities: Assessment

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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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Final Project Ideas

I think that I am going to do my application project on conducting a series of ESL tutoring sessions and writing a reflection paper on my experiences.  I am doing my TESOL practicum at the moment at Normal Community High School and am very active in the classroom.  So, I "tutor" all the time.  There are students that are from Japan, Guatemala, Mexico, Ethiopia, Dominican Republic, Congo, among a few others.  I didn't think I would enjoy teaching English as a second language as much as I actually do now that I am somewhat in practice.  So, I would love to delve deeper into these experiences and share them.

The Three Models of Curriculum

Just as the three projects were categorized in their organization, these models of curriculum are similar in that each has its own pros and cons.  These seem to develop off one another, which is hopeful to me as a future ESL teacher.  However, I'm not sure that these are that helpful learning about individually because they always leave the reader with questions, wondering what the answer is.  As the author states, he offers a suggestion that "the framework most applicable to ELT today is an integrated approach which is essentially learner-centered and is an attempted 'synthesis of the product-oriented ends-means model and the process-oriented approach'" (74).  This suggestion, the 'New Pragmatism,' is merely a theory, however, and states that it could develop in the future with time.  However, one main point about this is that "in the integrated approach, needs analysis takes place not only at the pre-course planning stage, but also during the course, contributing to the development of teacher-learner negotiated learning objectives" (75).  This would be very beneficial in that it would keep students on track, so that they can scaffold their previous learned knowledge.  Teachers will be able to see what students have difficuly with while doing needs analysis during the course.  I like it!

Questions

Chapter 1

1. Olsen's study is a historical anthropological study of ELL in our classrooms.  It focuses on a California high school.  She takes into account how identity is largely affected by how we view and categorize students by their race, class, language, etc. 
2. Her theoretical background is the Head of California tomorrow.  She attempts to combine racial and economic theories to create a new social theory.  Her definition of schooling focuses on the related issues of language, race, culture, and national identity
3. The research method Olsen utilizes is the ethnic graphic approach.  This observes culture and participating/interviewing the participants. 
4. The participants of the research were 15 faculty/administration members at Madison High, 7 at the Newcomer School (ESL Program), 47 students, and 5 teachers.
5. The central issues/research questions include:
-How did they understand "America?"  What does it mean to be "American?"
-What borders and boundaries did they create or detect in social relations? What language did they use to articulate and create those borders and boundaries?
-How were the crossings, the borderlands and terrain in between languages, cultures, and national identities experienced, shared, contested?
-How did they experience and view their encounters with each other across languages, cultures, and national identies?
-What was it like for those students and teachers who felt themselves involved in forging new terrains of language, culture, racial, and national identity?
-Why were they in school, and how did they experience school? What relationship did school have to the rest of their lives?
6. Olsen kept date through journals, categorizing three different personalities of herself which were the storyteller, the anthropologist, and the advocate.  She also utilized census and school reports. 

 7.
The researcher’s roles were to be the observer.  She viewed participants in the school and in the community.  She wanted to see how students perceived their own education and how this was constructed. 8. The demographics were Demographics: 32.8% white, 26.1% Hispanic, 13.5% African-American, 13.3% Asian, 11.1% Filipino, 2.4% Pacific Islander, and less than 1% Native-American.

Olsen't Chapter 5

In the first few pages, students share accounts of their feelings of being in the United States and their feelings about their home country.  I was so sad to hear some of these.  Sandra, from Brazil, actually sheds tears because she is so homesick and doesn't have a sense of belonging in the U.S.  Her account was beautiful in what she was sharing but very sad to hear.  Hanh, from Vietnam, also feels this.  It was interesting that two students who are so very different related on a level, however.  Hanh shared because she was trying to empathize with Sandra.  What is most bothersome about these is how we are all guilty of categorizing people.  The chapter has a great explanation of it on page 117: What constitutes a pan-Latino population? What is an immigrant need? Do Brazilians and Central AMericans and Mexican newcomers and Chicanos belong in a single category either as immigrants or as Latinos? With what implications? The process ocurring within Madison High and Bayview reflects national trends toward broader racialized categories; and works against the national specificity in the identities that immigrants bring with them.  The process is not, however, without fissures and conflict for the students themselves.

Semistructured Projects

"Semistructured projects are defined and organized in part by the teacher and in part by students" (110).  This is what I plan on utilizing every year in my classroom, when doing projects.  I feel that structured is too one sided towards the teacher's vision and doesn't consider what the students are interested in, what is relevant to them, or what their needs are.  We as teachers in any subject have the responsibility to assess our students' needs, whether that be because they are behind in something, have a disability of some sort, or need more of a challenge.  The structured projects do not do this.  Unstructured, I feel, gives students too much freedom.  They don't always know what is best for themselves, nor what the teacher's objective is, so they could easily miss that and the purpose of the project.  However, it is interesting to think what a very motivated class would do with this, where they would take it and how well they would do on their own.  With this semistructured project, I feel that a performance based project might be the most beneficial to use.  What immediately came to my mind was an experience I had that is a good example of this.  I've had several teachers facilitate debates in the classroom where students are split into two groups that represent a position.  They don't choose the side they are on and must do research on their own representing and supporting their position.  Although they are spitting out statistics and factual information, this process leads to students coming to an understanding of their position, the other side, and the situation as a whole all on their own.  They are able to interpret that information and respond in a debate about a real world situation that is important and relevant to the class.  This teaches students a variety of skills that they are able to get to mostly on their own through the research and debate.  I think this is a great project and will use it in the future.

Communication Strategies

Communication strategies, picked as one of the aspects in the project that was said to promote language acquisition, involves a very active role by the learner.  I know only a few are also in practicum, but I chose this topic for discussion board because we discussed in practicum how ELLs pick up slang and common sayings to fit in, even though they might not know the true meaning.  Communication strategies, such as requests, turn taking, confirmation, etc. are similar to slang in that these are new concepts to ELLs and they are specific to American culture.  They might be used in order to adapt, but they more than likely aren't understood right away and take practice.  The text states that, "The underlying notion is that opportunities to modify and restructure interaction until mutual comprehension is reached are what enable learners to move forward in their interlanguage development" (101-102).  One major aspect about both slang, common sayings, and speech acts such as requests is that "underlying notion" with the goal of "mutual comprehension."  I think that to be able to communicate in the target language is more often the goal when learning another language, more so than for academic reasons, etc.  For this reason, communication strategies is an effective part of teaching, in particular, English as a second/foreign language and would have also been helpful as part of the project.