Prior to
taking this course, I was aware of the certain struggles that English Language
Learners face. However, I did not realize the larger picture with the refined
details in those struggles that each student may come across in their lives. This
class not only taught me to differentiate my lesson to different learners and
ELLs, but to also be able to communicate these ideas whether it be through
social interactions, hands-on activities and/or visuals. I always envision my
students to feel safe and inclusive to the discussions, however, I first must
be able to approach them in a situation where they can feel comfortable at
their own pace whether it be through writing or speaking. Wright mentions multicultural
education can help prepare all students to live in our multicultural society,
with attention to complex social challenges such as racism, discrimination and
other issues of inequality (Wright, 2015, p. 15). Therefore, students do not necessarily
need to have the similar cultural background to succeed emotionally and
academically, but I believe teachers need to help build the bridge to allow
ELLs feel welcomed to the community in the classroom.
A topic
that I found most relevant to my content area of teaching consist of differentiated
instruction with Science. Courses that significantly helped me identify
different instructions were: Differentiated Instruction for Diverse Learners
and Teaching Science for Grades 4-8. Science is known to include many hands-on
activities to explain difficult concepts through many kinds of instructions. However,
ELL students must be given the opportunities to practice sustained English
while focusing on scientific tasks (Wright, 2015, p. 280). For example, activities
through modeling, think-pair-share, and/or visuals through graphic organizers
could improve the comprehension of not just ELL students, but all students in
general when communicating with their peers. With this thought in my mind, I
could modify my lessons from a teacher-led to a student-centered lesson.
After taking
this online course, I found it to be challenging with some of the assignments.
Although I enjoyed doing the video blogs, interviewing individuals for Vlog #2
and #3 required additional flexibility to my schedule and theirs’. In addition,
just like any other online course- students are responsible for their independent
learning. I found the textbook very useful to read, but it was quite a struggle
keeping up with the amount of readings per week with student teaching. However,
there was an advantage of taking this course online. Just like any other online
course, I could work on my assignments whenever and where ever.
As for the
video blogs, I did enjoy making them to a certain extent. Although it opened up
our outlet of documenting our perspectives via online, it relied too much
heavily on other individuals (interviewing). I think these assignments could
have suffice with either recording a video or writing a reflection- not both.
In addition, comments and replies made the class more active in looking at
different perspectives, but I think the amount per comment/replies were just
too many to do as a student teacher. However, I did like how we were able to self-grade
our self using the rubric.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English
Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia,
PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Thank you for an exemplary entry. I, like you, am concerned about how time and the amount of hours you spend in the classroom teaching while you also take college class is impacting your learning. It seems like there is little time to do your assignments, to interact with other teachers, professors and even learners. This can be detrimental to the academic learning process. I am glad to see, however, that despite this limitations, you have been able to excel in the class and that your vblog was always interesting and of high quality. I do not completely agree with the idea of only doing the video or the reflection. The video is the opportunity for you to collect the data and the reflection is when you actually look at the data and draw conclusions based on your new theoretical foundations.
ReplyDeleteHello, Michelle!
ReplyDeleteYour post was really insightful to me because I am also teaching science in my Student Teaching class. It’s true that science incorporates a lot of hands-on activities because that’s how science should be taught. Science contains a lot of complex concepts and having students reading textbook to learn will disengage them. In science, students can try out their maturing ideas about scientific phenomena using their English language skills (Wright, 2015). I think the number one method that promotes this skill is think-pair-share. This encourages thinking and promotes verbal communication between students. They get to learn the concept while interacting with their friends. Science is a fun subject and what I noticed that my students enjoy it the most when it’s hands-on and interactive.
Wright, W.E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy and practice. (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Calson.
Hello Mia! It is true that Science should be taught with hands-on activities, but that does not necessarily mean that all concepts could be taught with this universal language. On the other hand, I do agree that the think-pair-share is a great communication strategy to enhance the students’ social skills and thoughts (Wright, 2015). However, I also think teachers need a good classroom management because some students will sneak in off-topic conversations during this think-pair-share.
DeleteHello Michelle. I enjoyed reading your Entry 4. I agree that this course has helped with understanding different ways to differentiate for my students. Wright mentioned many different methods teachers can use to help ELL students understand the content being taught. For example, for math and science ELL students benefit the most from hands-on experience (Wright, 2015, p272).
ReplyDeleteNext, I noticed that you mentioned how you would make your classroom less teacher centered, and more student centered. I really like this, because this approach gives the students autonomy and also makes the interactions between students helpful for ELLs to sustain their learning. Wright mentions that cooperative learning is beneficial for students because it is “an effective strategy for helping ELLs learn both language and academic content” (Wright, 2015, p170.)
Thanks for your insight!
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Hello Lam! I can support your idea that Math and Science benefit the most from hands-on experience, especially with STEM. On the other hand, Wright mentions there are many vocabulary that have different context such as table, column, and face (Wright, 2015, p. 271). I think in order for ELL students to understand these vocabulary, collaborating and modeling would be a good visual representation. These students can practice as a whole-group to small-group and then independently to enhance their accuracy.
DeleteHi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your reflection and I agree with some of your ideas. It is indeed very important that we as educators are able to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of the diverse student population that makes up public schools. Wright (2015, p. 13) mentions that "the majority of ELLs are ethnic minorities from low-income families." ELLs not only face the challenge of learning a new language, but it is also likely that they face extensive challenges outside of school. Creating a welcoming learning environment and classroom community for not only ELLs, but all students, is our duty as educators. By attending to the needs of ELLs we can help close the achievement gap and encourage these students to overcome the challenges they face.
Hello Angel! It is true that all students are facing some sort of challenge(s) at home, regardless of being an ELL or Non-ELL. In addition, I like how you included the achievement gap. Wright mentions the four different tiers of multicultural education as: (1) contributions, (2) additive, (3) transformative, (4) social action (Wright, 2015, p. 21). The first two levels are usually what teachers often feel comfortable at, however, these are apparently not sufficient enough to prepare students to understand and the opportunities of the students and communities. To dive in, teachers need a strong will-power to keep their students safe, therefore, students will also follow through with this expectation.
DeleteHi Michelle,
DeleteI can definitely see how common it is that teachers stay within the first two levels of multicultural education from my observations and experiences in the classroom. Taking social action and going above and beyond to take action towards positive changes in regards to social equality is the responsibility of students and teachers alike (Wright, 2015, p. 21). As suggested by Wright (2015), teachers can work as facilitators for student lead research projects that can be presented to school boards or local press in order to take account for the social action (4th and highest) level of multicultural education. Without direction and guidance from teachers and school professionals, students may not even consider their ability to make an impact on their own learning.
Hi Michelle! I also agree that this class has taught me how to differentiate lessons to help students, including ELLs, to understand and comprehend a lesson. My content area is Mathematics, and some of the strategies you mentioned can also be incorporated with my content area. Wright (2015) mentions for both math and science a better and more effective approach is to help students connect to their own lives, families, and communities. If students are able to make a connection to the real world and connect it to their own life, it will help them have a better understanding of the concept.
ReplyDeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (Second ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.
Hello April! Math and Science do go hand-in-hand for some of the instructional activities. On the other hand, I like how you mentioned students are able to understand when given the opportunity to apply their knowledge to their personal world. I think this is a great strategy that could be applied to all content area, because not all students share the same experience. Wright gives an example about the currency around countries, and how not all countries correlate the size of the bill or coin to it’s value (Wright, 2015, p.272). If students could bring in their own connection and share it to the class, teachers could always make it an additive learning experience to the whole classroom.
DeleteHi Michelle!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. I also can personally relate to the challenge of interviewing others. I found this difficult because I certainly think teachers have enough on their plate and I did not wan to add more. However, as I am sure you learned yourself, it was very helpful to hear others feedback on topics discussed. Actually, according to Wright (2015, p. 113.) in order to provide the most effective instruction possible, ESL and classroom teachers need to work collaboratively. Having their feedback and insights helps us in our learning and growing It also personally helped me tackle assessment views and instruction delivery. In closing, I do feel that although it came with challenges, each task provided a very helpful tool.
Wright, Wayne. (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.
Hello Marina! I think we are fortunate that UH is able to pair us with a variety of schools to get hands-on experience when we step foot into a classroom. In addition, I agree with you that the feedback will only help us grow and see what we can do when we have our own classroom too. In order for teachers to work collaboratively, they need to also dedicate a time. Wright mentions that could be done through regular meetings before or after school in grade-level or content-area faculty meetings (Wright, 2015, p. 113). I can already see that it is tough for teachers to find time before or after school to collaborate with these specialist. However, I was also able to see that on a half-day, teachers would plan after this time to discuss some of the challenges for their students.
DeleteMarina,
DeleteI agree with you and Michelle about the stress of finding a teacher to interview. In fact for my second blog, I had a teacher cancel on me last minute and I was unable to record an interview. While it was difficult to schedule, there were only two blogs that required those interviews. In addition, the interview only needed to be five minutes long. I think they were reasonable requests, because as you mentioned, our classmates learned a lot from each other’s videos.
Hello Ms. Lam,
ReplyDeleteDifferentiated instruction in science and creating lessons to be student centered can be challenging as the factors of inquiry, learning styles, and instructional strategies can make or break the lesson. I currently face the struggle on how to make math engaging as it changes from something so hands on to working with only a pencil and paper by middle school. Having the additional worry to reach all students and ensure ELL’s are accommodated is a challenge as lessons have to be prepared in a way where items can be removed or added as the day goes on. I agree that the differentiation class for grades 4-8 was helpful including the use of this book as I have been able to use some strategies in my lessons such as guided writing. Even though my content is math, I have been using guided writing to have students go over meaningful vocabulary and reflect what the lesson was about. This has helped the class with retaining information and recalling key terms (Wright, 2015, p.238).
Works Cited
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (Second ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.