Week 14

Assessments are a crucial part of teaching, it shows us the progress the student has made over time as well as the strengths and concerns some students need. Assessment can be as formal as a final project or test it can be as simple and informal as observation. Assessments give the students a freedom in the classroom, tests can harbor anxiety in students and assessments can give them an opportunity to show what they have learned in a creative way. There is also freedom with what a teacher can do with assessments, there can be a lot of creativity and versatility in assessments but they must be practical, reliable and valid. If the test is dependable, tests what it is intended to test and practical then it is trustworthy and the students will feel more comfortable with it. The test should always be authentic and use authentic language, this is especially important for English language learners.

I personally believe alternative assessments provide more stability and security in students. I believe they showcase student’s strengths and concerns better than a traditional test. For example in this class we have a good mix of alternative assessments and tests. It is important to know what a student knows and tests can do a good job of that but there are so many factors that can influence a test. With alternative assessments students have a better opportunity to demonstrate what they know. When the students have an opportunity to use alternative assessments such as portfolios, journals, conferences and observations they are more in control of their learning. In portfolios students can pick and choose what they think is most important, the students are more in control of their learning and learning outcomes which is more meaningful than taking a multiple choice test and forgetting about it a week later. Alternative assessments are an outlet for students to be creative and for me it is more meaningful. Traditional tests are important but there should be a healthy mix of alternative assessments as well.

When traditional testing is needed it is important that as a teacher you know how to construct a quality test that is valid, reliable, and practical. The items that are being tested should be clear and unambiguous, the last thing a teacher wants to do is confuse students when they are being assessed. The directions should be clear, this can be challenging especially for non native English speakers. Teachers should have a variety of discourse types in the test as well as in the evaluation. It is important for testers to develop a variety of procedures to assess different skills.

Oral Proficiency tests are a whole new area that needs to be assessed differently. An interdisciplinary approach is a great way to understand the language because it is practical and an effective means of assessment. 

Brown ch. 9-11 Kumar ch. 13

Brown ch. 9-11 Kumar ch. 13

Curriculum design can be daunting at first; you have to think about so many different areas; the setting, classroom characteristics, teacher characteristics, course content and evaluation requirements. When developing a skeleton for a curriculum plan it is essential that you take in consideration of the kinds of learners you have in your classroom. You have to look at their background, their learning styles, what they need to learn, what materials they have available to them and goals of the curriculum, students and teacher. When making a course syllabus as a teacher you really need to make sure that when teaching is going on you are going to be making changes constantly, no teacher follows or should follow the syllabus to a t. Constant redesign of the syllabus should happen because the topic of conversation could go further in one direction than you previously planned, this is not a bad thing. When this happens teachers should take advantage of this because students are engrossed and there is meaningful conversation happening. Texts should help with this meaningful learning, not be the number one source of it, especially with L2 learners. Texts should support learning and give another outlet for further learning but it should not be the only articles that shape it.

The first element of a lesson that at teacher should think about is the goal of the lesson; what the students will accomplish after the lesson is completed, how you as the teacher will carry out the lesson and how the students will take what they have learned and apply it to their lives. The objectives help the teacher organize these goals and bring them to life. Teachers should be constantly thinking about the terminal and enabling objectives as well as the materials they will need to carry out the assignment. Beginning lesson plans the teacher should have a clear set of goals and objectives they want to cover as well as the materials and texts they are going to use with keeping assessments in mind. Teachers should not be discouraged is the topic goes off course or if a topic or assignment lasts longer or not as long as they planned, teachers need to think on their feet and run with it.

Thinking of techniques can also help teachers know what direction they want the lesson to go. It should be clear from the beginning if the lesson is open-ended or structured, student centered or teacher centered, in other words controlled or free, but this does not mean if you are teaching a lesson with controlled characteristics you should not have free characteristics. In the real world classroom it is not so black and white, the students and teacher the lines will blur. 

Week 12: Social Relevance, Cultural Consciousness

Ensuring Social Relevance, Raising Cultural Consciousness

“No classroom is an island unto itself. Every classroom is influenced by and is a reflection of the larger society of which it is a part of.” This quote is the perfect way to start off the chapter because it personifies what good classroom social relevance should be. Class, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, language, and sexual orientation are some factors in social relevance that teachers have to keep in mind, especially if they are teaching ELL students. I think it is unfair for “standard English” to be in our vocabulary, in the past this may have worked but right here and now there is no “standard American” so the term “standard English” should be rewritten. The standard variety Kumar is talking about in this chapter refers to a person with no regional accent, who resides in the Midwest, who have more than average or superior education, who are educators or broadcasters, who pay attention to pronunciation and grammar, who are easily understood by all and use “proper language”. This is not the case with many Americans and it is not fair to say that one variation is superior to another. Imagine English Language Learner’s whose teacher refers to their variation as nonstandard or wrong, it is more than discouraging and it would not make them want to become a better speaker.  American’s have different variations that is what makes this country so interesting, English in a L1 setting is very different than English in an L2 setting but that does not make either setting better or worse than the other. When teaching we need to make this issue personalized to each student and we have to keep an open mind to the background of each student. It would be appropriate to tap into the unique linguistic and cultural knowledge that all the learners have in the classroom, connect with them. Give clear directions and providing simple clear examples and be friendly; being in an open welcoming environment can make a change.

Culture can be hard to define and hard to maintain in a classroom. It is upsetting to see learners from other cultures and countries lose some of their culture when going to school in America. While we want our students to flourish with the English language and custom it would be a shame for them to lose their original background and way of life. In order to help these students preserve their culture we as pre-service teachers have to make an effort to understand their way of life at home. The classroom should be rich in culture to make the students feel comfortable being themselves and comfortable to share their culture with other students.

Social responsibility can be tricky because there are controversial issues that need to be dealt with, especially regarding ethics. As teachers we should try to stick with the “universal” moral principals such as love, equality, tolerance and freedom and not get into the topic of religion or any topic that can go in the direction of making students uncomfortable or that are potentially offensive or disrespectful. The classroom is a community and the students should always feel a part of that community.

For my final paper I am focusing on the pedagogies and methods used in Early Childhood classrooms with students who are English Language Learners.  I have found some articles; Beverly A. Clark’s “First- and Second-Language Acquisition in Early Childhood, Teacher Skills to Support English Language Learners by Deborah Short, Effective Practices and Principals to Support English Language Learners in the Early Childhood Classroom by Vickie E. Lake. Some new questions I have formed form the last time we meet are: how can programs support English Language Learners and what specific pedagogies should be in place?, How can we assess ELL’s language without the skills of reading and writing?