ENG 345 Post # 11

The readings from this past week dealt with assessment. In my 346 class, we have been discussing the differences between assessment and testing and the various types of assessments you can use in order to assess students. As Brown has said, a test is something that measures knowledge in a specific domain where as an assessment measures a wider domain in an ongoing process. An example of this would be a portfolio that a student could look back on and see how much they have progressed and the knowledge they have gained. I personally prefer assessments in the elementary and secondary school settings. The purpose of school is for students to learn and progress. With diverse assessments students can explore their abilities and talents and learn and experience more than in just one test that is not always valid and reliable. Also in the readings, Brown discusses norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced tests. I became aware of norm- referenced tests last year due to my professor grading our exams and papers in comparison to the rest of the class. I hated this. Since the class I took was a Spanish history class, there were many native Spanish speakers in there. Therefore, my level of ability was seen as lower due to my L2 being compared to someone's L1. I did not think that that was entirely fair. In my future class, I would be sure to use criterion-referenced tests. I feel that it is only fair to base a students performance off of what they can do and not compare it to everyone elses. Every student should have the opportunity to obtain an A, not be scattered through out a scale based on comparability.

Eng 345 Post # 10

Brown's readings that were assigned this past week talked about curriculum and unit plans. Curriculum can be very overwhelming in the idea that not everything goes to plan. You may have planned out numerous activities for a day that dealt with the topic matter you were teaching and were not able to get to all of them due to the students not grasping the idea of the concept immediately. It was a relief to see that Brown talked of this because things never always go to plan and it is a crazy to believe that in a classroom of diverse students a teacher will be able to follow the curriculum or their unit plan word for word or step of step. Brown discusses the needs of the students as objective and subjective. The objectives are what we have all been used to preparing and planning, "The students will be able to demonstrate...etc" in our lesson plans. Of course these are important and essential because students attend school in order to learn. However, because things change from year to year, day to day, and especially from student to student, we need to keep in mind the subjective needs of the students when teaching in order to accommodate to their needs.The question that arouses for me, is how exactly do you incorporate all of these subjective needs in a lesson plan? Do they necessarily have to be written out, or can we simply imply that things are not going to go as planned and give our plans and curriculum flexibility?

Kumar took a different approach in what was discussed in the readings and focused on M&M/ macro-strategies / mismatch observational scheme. In this observational scheme, the teacher observes themselves in how they approach a lesson, teach it, meet the students needs, and how they can improve themselves in doing so. The three main points of observation include pre-observation, observation, and post observation. I feel that all three of these observation points are important in the idea that this gives ourselves as teachers so observe ourselves before, during, and after in order to compare what we had to planned, to actually what happened, and then focus on the improvements we can make in future lessons to better them. The quote that my C&I 212 teacher would always say is "There is no other profession like teaching where each day you have a fresh start". I completely believe and agree with that. By analyzing and observing ourselves we can definitely continue to improve in order to become the best teachers we can be. 

Eng 345 Blog # 9

 Reading Blog: Cultural Awareness

The readings from this past week dealt with raising cultural awareness. As we have learned and talked about in the past, it is extremely important to be  aware and respectful of other peoples cultures. Being ESL teachers, there are for sure going to be students from diverse backgrounds that we need to take in to account for teaching. Not only to do we need to recognize and be sensitive in order to make students feel comfortable and welcomed in the classroom but we also need to pay attention to the differences of what is culturally acceptable in some cultures and what is not in comparison to ours. It is important to be aware of these factors in order for us to understand actions and behaviors of certain students and also to inform them and teach them the "norms" of the American culture. Due to the probability of having a class full of diverse learners, It would be smart to include lessons of each students culture so that the whole class can also learn and be aware of it too. Not only will it give the other students a better understanding, but it would make the students culture that's being presented feel proud and welcomed in a diverse setting.

Research Proposal Update

The topic that I had decided on from the two that we had discussed was, should the use of the learners L1 be used in the classrooms or should they be English only? Although we had talked about focusing more on one of the skills, reading, writing, speaking, or listening, in regards to a more narrower topic, I have chosen to take a different route. I would like to compare English Only classrooms with respect to reality vs. ideology. It can be very easy to have an idea and feel that that is the right way to go but sometimes we forget to put these ideologies in to play and pay attention to their outcomes in reality. Therefore, I think that this aspect would be very beneficial to research and discuss since this topic of interest is still so controversial.

Articles

 http://www.aare.edu.au/10pap/1755HoangJangYang.pdf - This article talks about the use of English -only classroom in a comparison of reality and ideology.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED467741&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED467741 - This article discusses the opinions and points of view from the classroom including the teachers and students. (reality)

http://www.azcentral.com/families/education/articles/0228ellprimer0228.html - This article discusses Arizona's English only program and also the effects of complications in regards to families trying to fit in,  teachers and language struggles, schools and their different directions, and lastly the state in regards to politics and money. (reality)

ENG 345 Post # 8

The chapters from Brown and Kumar this week focused on context, models of integration, and integrating language skills. In chapter 9, Kumar focus mostly on context in the idea of linguistic, extralinguistc, situational, and extrasituational realities. In my opinion, it is extremely important to keep these four factors of context in mind when teaching and speaking in an L2. Depending on your culture, diverse ways of expressing things can be seen as acceptable or unacceptable. For example, when I was in Spain, when referring to others, the people there would be very blunt and ask questions such as "where is the gordo"?  In English "gordo" means fat. Although this is acceptable for their culture, it would not be seen as acceptable to ask that in American culture. It would be seen as rude. Also, in terms of linguistics there are words that can have diverse meanings causing L2 learners to possibly use them in the wrong context and people are then not able to understand them.  
In chapter 10 discusses the importance of integrating language learning skills and not just focusing on teaching reading, writing, listening, and speaking separately. I completely agree with this because now a days in order to communicate all four of these need to come naturally with one another. For example, they reflect off of each other as in speaking and listening, when conversing one needs to speak and listen, not just focus on one or the other. Also, when learning Spanish because they focused so much on writing and reading skills, I lack confidence and skill in regards to my speaking. 
Brown chapter 17 bounces off of the ideas in chapter 10 regarding integrating language learning skills. However, he goes in to the models of integration that include content, task, and theme-based. I feel that a good combination of all of these helps cater to the diverse learning needs of L2 learners in becoming successful and well rounded in their L2. Of these three models, which one tends to be the most utilized?

ENG 345 Post # 7

The chapters that we had from Brown dealt with teaching reading and writing in the classroom. As a second language learner, I have always found reading to be the easiest out of the two for me.

In regards to reading Brown proposes techniques in how to provide students with good teaching steps in successfully reading in their target language. In order to be able to comprehend and understand a reading, one needs to have prior knowledge of basic vocabulary (or vocabulary of that certain topic), and be aware and recognize grammar structures and conjugations. Due to this, I found Brown's top down approach to be the most beneficial out of the two approaches. The other being the top down approach. However, because learners all have their own way of learning and connecting to things differently, a combination of the two and providing the students with both  of the approaches would fully benefit my students. They will be exposed to a various genres of reading context that can range from 18th century to poetry. Since these genres can tend to be a bit more difficult, it is good to have approaches and techniques for how to have a full understanding when reading.

In regards to writing, Brown states that "the process of writing is the most important rather than the product". I like his perspective on this topic. Although it may be easier to just grade a final product and not the process of it in the idea that it can be a little more subjective, I feel that paying attention to the process of how the student came to the finishing product is also more beneficial that just seeing the final product. Being able to base progress and writing levels is within the process; not necessarily always at the end of it. Not every student starts off at the same level finishes the same as another student. It is a learning process and students should learn from their mistakes in order to continue the process of creating better and better writing.

What are some techniques that students can use to practice their writing skills and find their voice in their writing pieces?

Eng 345 Post # 6

The readings from this week were very interesting to me due to the idea that I could relate to them. To begin with, in the Cary article, there was a focus on the benefits of bringing diversity in to the classroom along with culture. Diversity and culture are huge proponents in successful second language learning. Due to L2 learners of the English language all being diverse, it it smart to bring in their own culture to make them more comfortable and have a better understanding of their identity. It is already frustrating and challenging to learn a new language and be exposed to culture aspects that are diverse from your own. By having the familiarity of ones own culture when learning a language helps for them to compare and identify as well as feeling more comfortable in the classroom that leads to more motivation put towards learning an L2. The teacher in the article did a good job in supporting the other cultures that existed in the classroom. Along with this, as Kumar emphasizes in chapter 5, is the interaction between the student and teacher. Having the learners and the teacher negotiate through out the class and maximize learning opportunities will also increase this motivation and success. In order to maximize these learning opportunities, we, as teachers will need familiarize ourselves with our students and how they learn.
The reading from Brown, in regards to speaking and listening, is the reading that I could relate the most to. He talks about the difficulty and also the aspects of ease in the speaking aspect of learning a second language. I myself have trouble with speaking in my L2. I can get very timid and reflect on every little mistake that I make which sometimes makes me not want to speak. The techniques that he discusses were not only a benefit to me for helping teach students, and to see the levels that they were at, but to also help myself. The characteristic that ideally helps listening and speaking easier was redundancy. When learning my L2, I definitely repeated things over and over to fully understand and feel comfortable with it. This is one of the things I plan on doing in my classroom. I do believe that these two components, listening and speaking, are the two most important in learning a language. In order to communicate one needs to not only comprehend but also produce.

Eng 345 Post # 5

The readings from Kumar and Brown from this past week concentrated on teacher and student learning, cognitive, socio-effective and linguistic principles, and strategic based instruction.
To begin, I like how Kumar stated that it is the responsibility of the teacher and the student to utilize learning opportunities. Normally, I feel that it is always one way sided. I either hear that it is the fault of the teachers as to why students do not succeed and that it is only the teacher's responsibility to make sure every child is at the same level, or that the student is just a slacker or not smart enough and it is their fault that they are not succeeding.  There is a relationship between the two and that you can not have one with out the other. Although I do believe that it is the teachers responsibility to accommodate to students and make learning creative, there still needs to be involvement from the students. Brown talks about the idea of motivation and intrinsic motivation. For me, I feel that the most important quality a student can have in order to succeed is having the motivation to do well. Think about it, if there is something that you are not interested in and dread doing, the likelyhood of you excelling in that task is not high. If you are motivated and enjoy to a certain extent of what you are doing, the likelihood of success increases immensely. I know from my experience in learning Spanish I would not have been this successful with it if I had not been motivated. I wanted to learn the language on my own for my personal accomplishments. There was no demand in me having to learn the language. The kind of motivation that I had was intrinsic motivation, that Brown discussed, which does not depend on any outside factors. This is where the teacher role in learning comes in to play. The teacher should try and make learning more fun and exciting in order for the students to have better motivation and possibly obtain that intrinsic motivation.
To go off from here, Kumar then explains in the chapter about strategic- based instruction opportunities in order for teachers to use to increase student learning. One of the strategies that she commented on was also what Brown had mentioned, increasing motivation and also learners of diverse styles. By accommodating to these styles, students can feel more comfortable in their learning environment and have a better understanding.
All in all, it is important that this relationship between student and teacher learning continues to grow. The need from both parts is important in the success of education.
What are the some of the ways that we can try and increase this bond? Can we think of any classes that we had more motivation to learn in? Why or why not was this?