Michelle Lam's Blog
Hello, welcome to the first entry of my Blog! My name is Michelle Lam. I am pursing a Teaching and Learning Degree with a certification of 4-8th grade for Science at the University of Houston.
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When ELLs are pulled out of class-time, they are given face-to-face small group instructions – which allows the student to focus on the quality of their language development. According to Wright, “ELLs are entitled to (1) high-quality language instruction to develop proficiency in English and (2) high-quality academic instruction across the content areas” (Wright, 2). This quote stands to be true after through personal experiences and observing through field observations. Activities my elementary instructors used during these ESL sessions consisted of: analyzing a variety of stories to build main and sub-concepts, identifying homophone vocabulary as well as building content-specific vocabularies. However, I feel like not all students dealt with the same positive benefits as I did in ESL. In order to ensure the parents and students this benefit, I would communicate with both parents and ESL teachers to take note of how I could improve the learning experience for the students in my classroom and lessons. These notes or recordings can be done daily, weekly, or monthly.
Another point I would like to address is the Socioeconomic Status (SES). Wright stated, “…high rates of poverty are strongly associated with low levels of educational achievements” (Wright, 13). In reference to the quote above, I would like to have a classroom library for my students and the opportunity to research during classroom time. In my perspective, if I allow my students to be given these opportunities, they will also be able to ask questions from their peers and myself. For my classroom library, I would definitely like to include a few popular language dictionaries such as Spanish and Vietnamese- which is known to be quite popular in Houston, Texas.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Michelle, that is so awesome that you are so familiar with so many different languages. It is amazing that you got such a positive experience being an ELL, because so many students do not. I like that you brought up the educational achievement difference among students. This is something I haven't seen brought up but I believe as educators is something that we should take note of. Wright (2015) recalls how even though there is supposed to be high accountability with "No Child Left Behind" there are still many children who are being left behind academically (pg. 13). Even if the ELL students are getting passed from grade to grade, it is important for educators to make sure they are truly learning the information that they need to be taught in order to succeed. One school I observed comes to mind when there was a ELL student who only spoke Chinese in the first grade. I was helping the class and when I got to him i noticed he couldn't understand me. The kids around me informed me that he can't understand so everyone leaves him alone to do his own thing. The teacher later confirmed that that was correct. Now I don't know all of his circumstances but from my perspective viewing the class it seemed like this boy was not getting the intervention that he needed to succeed in class. This is something I would want to avoid doing in my class by educating myself on how I can best help my students.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Vanessa, thanks for sharing your experience with the ELL first grader! I had encountered a similar situation but with my sixth graders. There were two ELL students who spoke Japanese, but they were allowed to use their translating device during class thankfully! Although it would be really difficult for them to keep up, I’m really glad I was able to assist them when my mentor was lecturing. I think the best way to identify how much support ELL students need is to communicate with the parents often. Wright (2015) mentioned that information regarding to the students ELL profile can be found through their enrollment papers and academic files (23). Even though we can find these information on legal documents, it’s also best to create beginning of the year surveys from the parents and students.
DeleteI always what teachers in foreign language classroom do wrong that even bilingual students like you fail at adding other language and usually do not go beyond being able to greet in the target foreign language. I guess it has to do with the fact that maybe this is the only part of language that learners actually get to practice daily.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how you became bilingual and if you attended a bilingual school since schooling is responsible for a great amount of the language we speak.
Hello Dr. Avellaneda! I think part of myself just wanted to become really familiar in the language itself, so I pushed myself to memorize as much as I could. Although I learned French for 2 years and Spanish for 1 Year, I can only remember some sentences. I was superb back when I learned them, but now the information have diminished because of the lack of practice.
DeleteAs for my Vietnamese and TeoChew, I was home-taught by my family- especially my grandparents. Although attending a bilingual school was something my parents wanted me to do, my parents thought it would be best if my siblings and I focused strictly on English instead at Public Schools. Even though my grandparents spoke these foreign languages, my parents spoke to my siblings and I both English and native languages. So I did have to attend ESL interventions during K-5th grade, which helped a lot with the growth of my English vocabulary and understanding. I think based on the environment I was put in, I was put through a subtractive bilingualism (Wright, 2015). Although my ESL interventions did not hold me back from learning Vietnamese, my parents did not encourage me to keep both languages intact. Even today, I still struggle coming up with the right English term when I am speaking and tend to say the meaning in Vietnamese.
I loved hearing you speak Mandarin. I agree that the SES of students does have a major effect on their success, as stated by Wright. (Wright, 2015. I also believe that students with high resilience have a higher chance of success than students with low resilience. As a daughter of immigrants, I believe that the struggle to come to America is highlighted by the culture that parents enforce on their children. The values implemented at home resonant at school. Although, students who are ELL may struggle to learn English, they may not come from a “singular cultural or linguistic background” (Wright, 2015, pg 18) This indicates that we have to be careful as teachers to not put bias or generalize our students when they come into our classroom. I’m sure that you’ll be a great teacher!
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hey Lam! My parents were immigrants also and they concluded learning English was the blissful option for my siblings and I. I am fortunate for them to decide that, but I also did not know I had options when I was younger. You made a great point regarding to ELL students may not come from a singular culture or linguistic background. I have a Vietnamese friend who was born in the United States, but he lived in Mexico for 7 years with his mom. Middle School was a rough time for him because he would listen into some conversations of some peers that were disrespecting him in Spanish. In relation to this, I believe it also ties into students identifying themselves where they are shaped by their, “economic, historical, political, and cultural contexts…” (Wright, 19). It’s expected for teachers to be selfless, but we tend to forget the minor details when teaching our students to be selfless outside of class time.
DeleteHi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing about yourself! I think it makes a huge difference in students' lives when they have teachers who were ESL students also, and I believe that shared experience will come as an advantage to you once you have your own students. They will have someone that can relate to how they feel/have a deeper understanding of what it's like to be a non-native English speaker. Like you, I take interest in SES when it comes to my students. I mentioned on someone else blog that last semester I had ESL students, and this semester I do not. The difference was noticeable as soon as the first day of school this semester because I had students who were able to bring tons of supplies while last semester I had students whose parents struggled to get them the bare minimum. I took this into consideration when I read that over 60% of ELLs come from low income families (Wright, 2015). I think that SES is something that we as teachers need to take into consideration when asking of material things from our students.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Danielle, thanks for sharing your insight about SES. During one of my field observations, I witnessed many students who lacked their supplies such as glue sticks and scissors. I didn’t know the students well enough to determine their SES background, but my teacher took off points for their missing supplies. How did your teacher accommodate to the low SES students? Or what would you have done? I always want to be the teacher that provide class sets of supplies such as scissors and color pencils, but even so those add up over time. It makes me wonder how the education system accommodate to these students when Wright mentions that, “the U.S. education system has done an inadequate job in providing equitable educational opportunities to poor and minority students,” when there is still a plausible gap in the academic achievement as of today (Wright, 13).
DeleteHi Michelle.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I exactly agree with how your mentor teacher took off points for their missing supplies. Surely there is some deeper reasoning behind that. My mentor teacher always has extra supplies but before she gives them to the students that need them, she sends a second reminder home to parents of school supplies that they need and maybe doesn't have extras of (binders, for example). I imagine that I will follow the same procedure in my classroom, because I don't feel like penalizing the students is appropriate due to the fact that they are not the ones with or without money to buy the supplies. Wright (2017) mentions "Guiding principles for making decisions about policies, programming, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and accountability for ELLS" and they include "striving for equity". It's important to keep in mind and being sensitive to the needs of our students, academically and otherwise.
Hey Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI think its so cool that you know over 2 languages. What you said about your mentor teacher sounded like something I would never do. There's a poem about a student who did everything he could to get his little sister and him to school. But, when he got there, the teacher yelled at him for not having a pencil. I know you won't be like that but I do feel like I should point out that I think it's wrong to do that. As teachers we need to get to know our students and if we know that they don't have any supplies, then we can work something out for that student. I really feel like there should have been other ways to carry on that situation. Wright states that "school districts are to ensure that all ELLs receive ESL instruction and any other service that will help them and contribute to their academic success (pg. 3). With this being said, I feel like so many people could have helped that student. I know you will do your best.