Thursday, December 6, 2007

My Junior Field Experience...with a lot of time to reflect.

I am a Theatre Education major. Will be certified to teach theatre K-12. I had my Junior Field during summer session 1 so to put it into perspective, it was the end of the year for these high school students. I was placed at the Middlesex County Vo-Tech in East Brunswick. They have a School for the Performing Arts which includes Theatre and Dance. The students spend half of the day only doing Theatre, and half of the day doing their required classes, such as English, Math, and History. I had the Sophomores and Juniors in the morning until 12, took a lunch break, then had the Freshman and Seniors in the afternoon till 2:30pm.
This program sets a higher standard for theatre students as opposed to a regular theatre class in a normal high school. These students breath, sleep, and eat theatre. I was a ore-k teacher for 6 years and absolutely loved it. But, since theatre is my passion, and I also define myself as an educator, I figured what could be better then to join the two. I've had many months to think about my experience; there are many pros and cons. I'll start by listing and explaining the cons first.

*My confidence level teaching theatre is not high at all. Teaching theatre and actually doing theatre are two completely different things. I still feel like I am learning so much new information, that even I haven't had the ability to let it sink in for myself. My students were used to learning on a college level from their teacher, and here I come in with only a fraction of the information that my cooperating teacher had. I was scared and unsure of myself. Nervous every time I taught the class. Although I had already taught for many years, I felt like a foreigner in a new land.

*I feel it is extremely important for any of our advisers to make an appropriate selection when it comes to our placement. The school as well as the cooperating teacher make a big difference. Although my cooperating teacher and I got along, she was the type of person that needed to be in control at all times. I don't think she allowed me to explore enough, and although she gave me great advice on theatre itself, I didn't get the help I needed to teach theatre.

*What a big difference age makes! Going from teaching 3, 4, and 5 year olds to teaching 14-18 year olds was the shock of a lifetime. I felt like I had to change my tone of voice and my attitude. It was equally bizarre for me because I have friends that just graduated from high school. It was difficult putting myself in the role of a teacher, when I feel like I am not that much older than them.

*When I started teaching the lessons, I felt guilty because I actually started to feel jealous of my students. I wanted to be involved in the lessons I was teaching, not be the one to teach them. When I taught the little ones, I felt like I was acting with them at all times. I did not get that feeling with my HS students. Maybe I'm selfish. I want to be the actress at all times. So if that is the case, then the answer would definitely be to have my Senior Field placement with much younger students.


I had let all this fester right up until the end of October. I had expressed my feelings to my friends, but never to my advisor. I probably should have. All these factors that I have bulleted led to my fear of next semester's Senior Field and an odd loathing for teaching. I decided I didn't want to be a BA in Theatre Ed anymore. Even with just a semester left until graduation, I decided I was going to switch to BFA in Theatre. This would have added an extra semester onto an already epic college career. I filled my mother in on the news, and as expected, she was angry. I was, however, afraid to talk to my advisor because I didn't want to disappoint her. I had half of the people in my life that I respect cheering me on, and the other half telling me just to stick with what I had. I flip-flopped back and forth for about a week and a half. I was terribly confused on what I should do. The last Monday of October, I had arranged to do an hour workshop on Shakespeare's Othello with a class of developmentally/emotionally challenged high school students in the Middlesex County area, who also happened to be seeing the Kean University's production (I was in it, and played Desdemona). I had already set in my head that I was switching to BFA. Something strange happened. I felt no stress about being watched or graded, I knew they knew a lot less than me. I went in there with the mindset that I was just going to have fun with these kids and leave them with something they didn't have before. Wow! What a success it was. The students loved it, I loved it, the teacher loved it. This is when I realized that I had to finally grow up, throw fear out the window, and do what I had to do. Finish something. It would be the smartest decision to graduate with a certification in Theatre. I will have a one up on a majority of the actors that are out in the business working as waiters.

There are many avenues of education for an actor. Theatre companies travel to schools to do in-school workshops, children and adults attend classes at the theater itself. I don't necessarily have to teach in a public school. And, this notion made me feel better about the whole situation.


So here I am, a BA in Theatre Education...ready and waiting for what's to come next.

Friday, July 13, 2007

My Junior Fields Experience

My junior fields experience was very unexpected. I was placed in a 6th and 8th grade math classroom. My major focus was with the 6th graders. There was an accelerated class and a regular class. My first day was very overwhelming for me. As I saw all these students before me, almost all of them my height, I started having my doubts. I became really nervous and had my second thoughts on whether teaching is the right career for me. As the days passed, I became more comfortable with the students, as well as my cooperating teacher. For two straight days, I had a substitute teacher, which at the time I didn’t like too much. However, I soon realized that it was great chance for me to get to know my students better and be more comfortable with them. The three weeks flew by and at the end of my junior fields. I got so attached to all my students. No only did they see me as a teacher, but as a friend. Even for those two lessons that I taught them on tessellations and cross sections, I feel like I made an impact. One of my students became obsessed with tessellations and every time he had free time, he would make one. That really touched me and made me feel good about myself. At the end of my junior fields, I came to the conclusion that teaching was the right choice on my career in life. I’m really looking forward to my internship. Here are some pictures of my 6th graders.



















10 year olds learning English

This is a great video clip on how 10 year olds learn English. Their teacher allowed them to make their own “buildings” out of boxes. Then, the buildings were placed in random places and they had to describe of the buildings were in front, behind, next to, etc. This is a great activity for ESL students. It has a lot of hands on work, especially when the kids make their own props. Not only are they learned where the buildings are placed, but they also learn names of important building such as a school, post office, bank, movie theater, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIz6ARrg2c

Linda Furiya's Video

Here is a short video of Linda Furiya. She is reading a book that she wrote on her upbringings as a child and her experience of living in a household with a non-American parent who didn’t know how to speak English well. She reads a part of her book about having dinner one night with her family and how her mom got upset at her for making fun of her accent. Linda realized how bad she hurt her mom and related it to when she was teased in school. This is something that probably happens daily in households. As teachers, we have to be sensitive of situations like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov_gD4q6Or0

Monday, June 25, 2007

ELL Outlook Newsletter

A site that I forgot to include is http://www.coursecrafters.com/ELL-Outlook/index.html. Course Crafters is a website that offers educational materials for teaching ELLs, and they publish a bi-monthly newsletter called ELL Outlook that has great articles on research, news, and interviews related to teaching ELLs across the country. The articles help keep educators informed of the most current information available.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

More ESL Websites

Here are some more of the sites that I was given to explore for ESL or literacy instruction that I didn't already find on this blog. If there are repeats, I'm sorry. Some of the sites are for software or curriculum for teachers, others are tools for for parents and students. Some are better than others, but all are worth a brief look.

Literacy Connections to promote literacy and love of reading (has an ESL section) - http://literacyconnections.com/
Pearson's software for teaching ELLs - http://www.pearsondigital.com/ellis/
Center for Applied Linguistics - http://www.cal.org/
International Reading Association brochures for parents in English and Spanish - http://www.reading.org/resources/tools/parent.html
A fun ESL learning site for students - http://www.manythings.org/
20 Graphic Organizers - http://longman.com/ae/shiningstar/
Crosscultural Developmental Education Services - http://crosscultured.com/
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory - http://www.sedl.org/
WIDA Consortium English learner assessments - http://www.wida.us/
Carnegie Corporation Literacy site - http://www.carnegie.org/literacy/
A Carnegie download, Double the Work, which is about "Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners." http://www.carnegie.org/literacy/pdf/DoubletheWork.pdf

An Idea to Raise Self-Esteem

Here is an idea from the school where I did my field experience. It greatly boosted the self-esteem of a French speaking fifth grader from the Caribbean who has been in New Jersey for several years. Every morning the principal would have a different student say the Pledge of Allegiance and the school pledge, which is an upbeat affirmation about achieving excellence. One morning the principal had the fifth-grader say the school pledge in English and then repeat it in her native French. Everyone was impressed. The principal complimented her over the loudspeaker, and when we saw her in class and praised her, she was very happy to get the positive reinforcement. The other students showed her great respect. Moments like this can be small gestures that mean a lot to an ELL.

Mrs. Hurley's ESL Site

Another great website is Mrs. Hurley's ESL (http://www.mrshurleysesl.com/). This award-winning site from Rockaway, NJ, has online practice links, links for homework help, internet projects, and class activities, among others. A successful practice of Mrs. Hurley is to "take students on a number of class trips throughout the year that are incorporated into the curriculum to supplement classroom instruction and to expose the students to new and different real life experiences outside of regular classroom instruction. Field trips do not end once the trip is physically over, but continue into the classroom with follow-up activities." The program gets grants so that these ESL students can go on the trips at no cost. This is part of the Real Life Language Program that is described on the site. Another idea, when it is impossible to take field trips, is to go on a "virtual" field trip. An online visit to a site like the Metropolitan Museum, with accompanying lessons, can be an interesting way to improve vocabulary by exposing the student to memorable images. A Teacher Resources link gives lesson plans and many other links for mainstream, ESL and content area teachers. There seems to be over a hundred different links throughout this site. This is a well-researched and creative website.

Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students

For the past few weeks I have been discussing this blog with my cousin, who is an ESL and Spanish teacher in a K-8 school. She has given me a number of good sites - some which are already posted or have been accessed from the State of NJ tutorial (such as www.crede.org). One of the sites she gave me on a list was for an interactive science site, www.exploratorium.edu. It is a really interesting site, but I haven't found an ELL connection yet. Also on this site are links to sites that Exploratorium thinks are "cool." While researching some of these websites, I came across http://www.carts.org/ . This site is for CARTS (Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students) and "is a project of City Lore, a cultural organization dedicated to the documentation, presentation, and preservation of New York City's — America's — living cultural heritage." The site has resources for different cultural lessons and artists-in-residence for NYC schools, from a workshop on making Chinese lanterns to an African folk dance lesson. The group partners with the schools to provide enriching cultural experiences that I think are important to preserve and share with students. The site shares some great ideas, but the best part is an online cultural catalog that has unusual books and items that can be used to expose children to other cultures. Most of the items are things that I have not seen in local bookstores. According to the catalog page, they carry "Multimedia Resources in FOLKLORE, HISTORY, CULTURE, and the ARTS For Integration Across the Diciplines." I think that having some of these materials in a classroom helps non-ELLs understand and accept classmates from other countries.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Use of Visual Aids as a Strategy for ELL Success

http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interactive.htm
This is a site, hosted by the Jefferson County Schools of Tennesse, containing links to interactive websites. A majority of the readings I have done for this class in regards to strategies and tips for teaching ELLs have all emphasized the necessity of using visual aids to guide the ELL to successful learning. There are many sites available on the internet, in which school districts, agencies, universities and teachers have posted their own interactive lesson plans. There is no need to start from scratch when designing a visual aid component during lesson planning. The links in this site may be assigned as homework, used in a computer lab or incorporated into a multimedia presentation such as Power Point in a classroom equipped with a projector, screen and internet access. It is fairly straightforward to include a hyperlink to any of these links in a Power Point presentation; doing so will provide an accomodation for the variety of differential learning styles we will all encounter in our classrooms. I found especially helpful the link to The Biology Project, hosted by the University of Arizona, especially designed for high school biology students.

Graphic Organizers Make Great Visual Aids for ELL students

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html
This site contains many different types of graphic organizers, all free and all printable. Most of the literature I have been reading has touted the use of different types of visual aids as a recommended strategy for teaching ELL students. The variety of graphic organizers on this webpage is very good, and all may be tailored to meet the needs of any grade level and content area.

Teaching Science to Language Minority Students (The author of this book is a Kean U professor!)

Teaching Science to Language Minority Students by Judith W. Rosenthal (who, coincidentally, was my Genetics professor at Kean in Fall 2006), although written with college-level science professors in mind, contains information and concepts applicable all teachers of ELL students, especially those at secondary grade levels. The book is written from the perspective of a college professor at Kean University (Dr. Rosenthal teaches both 'regular' science courses and the Spanish-speaking sections of Biology 1000), and therefore presents a relevant and accurate view of the diverse population of Kean students (and of students of much of Union County). It is not necessary to read the book from cover to cover, although it is a quick read at approximately 200 pages; it is also effective as a reference book. Chapter topics include 'Defining the Issues', 'Second Language Acquisition Theory and its Application to Undergraduate Science Teaching', 'The Many Cultures of the Science Classroom, Learning Styles, Science Instruction, and Ethnicity', 'How Instructors Can Help Limited English Proficient Students in Traditional Science Courses', "Issues Related to Rhetoric, Writing and Reading', 'The Theoretical Basis for Linguistically Modified Science Instruction', along with two sections of Case Studies. Although published eleven years ago, in 1996, the theories and studies cited in the book are pertinent to today's lesson planning for ELL students.
Discussions range from the implications of learning style diversity between teacher and student, to classroom culture, to conversational versus academic English proficiency, to studies on how "wait times" effect student responses. (Wait-time is defined as the amount of time, in seconds, that a teacher waits for a student to respond to a question. Typical teacher wait-times were noted to be less than one second, increasing that time to just three to five seconds resulted in marked improvement in responses in controlled studies.)
The book is available for loan through Kean University's library, and is well worth looking at.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Teaching Mathematics and Science to ELLs

Since I am interested in any ELL teaching strategies that relate specifically to the teaching of science to the ELL student, I was thrilled to find a wonderful publication produced by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, "The Inclusive Classroom: Teaching Mathematics and Science to English-Language Learners". This free downloadable document is available online at http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED455690&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED455690
The 42 page document was funded by the US Department of Education and contains a wealth of information for science and math teachers and includes a resources and bibiography section of additional information and organization contacts. Just a few thoughts on what I learned from this site: ELL students may experience difficulty with the concepts of logical connectors (e.g., if, because, however, consequently); these words or phrases are an important component of "talking science". Therefore it may be necessary to restate a scientific problem as a declarative sentence (and eliminating the use of the logical connectors), for an ELL. Interestingly, the publication also references studies in which it was found that students' "academic performance ...and English-language development often improves...when allowed to use their home language in the classroom". This brought to mind a conversation I had with a friend who is a high school teacher who insists that only English be spoken in the classroom. Reading this and other documents available on the web makes me realize that I have a long way to go in developing my own strategy for effective teaching of the ELL in my classroom. I know this development will be a dynamic process, changing in response to my own experiences and research.

Youtube for teachers

www.teachertube.com

for k-12 use.

A Checklist of Strategies for Teaching ELLs

In the Salt Lake City School District (Salt Lake City, Utah) website, located at http://www.slc.k12.ut.us/staff/larmad/science/Pages/ELLScience.htm, there is a section entitled "Teaching Science to English Language Learners" which contains some basic instructional approaches in teaching ELLs. On this page, there is also a link to "A Tool for Reflective Practioners", which I suspect I will use frequently throughout my teaching career during reflection of lessons planned. The tool is a suggested checklist of strategies for teaching of ELL students, and a checklist from a score of "1" for rarely included strategies to a "5" for often included strategies. I was pleased to note that I automatically included some of the strategies recommended during my lesson planning for Junior Field (including use of visual aids and color coding, among others), but there were many that I had not thought of using; therefore this checklist is an easy method of evaluating lessons specifically as they attempt to help the ELL student. I would highly recommend this checklist for any content area or grade level!

Hints for Science Teachers of ELLs

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/help_ELL_science.phtml
This website, from a textbook publisher, contains a great outline of tips for science teachers of ELLs (many of which are applicable to all content areas) under its "Subject Specific Resources" section, entitled "Helping English Language learners in the Science Classroom". The outline format of the section makes it easy to read, and while I did practice some of the suggestions prior to reading the site, I did learn some new hints, especially under the section concerned with laboratory techniques. This is the part of the science classroom experience in which I feel least prepared to teach, since this is the part of the classroom experience in which a teacher may easily lose control of the students. The hints offered, such as breaking the lab into clear, concise steps and using pictorial aids, would help the ELL, along with assisting in maintaining control of students during this important learning experience time in any science classroom. The hint about not forcing the ELL to speak in front of the class gave me pause, since I had a situation in which a student was speaking very softly (during my Junior Field experience). The other students told me I should "make him speak up", and I quickly realized that the student in question had a heavy accent and was probably not comfortable in speaking to the class. I quickly defused the situation, but realized that I need to be more aware of the potential for these situations in advance. Although this student actually volunteered to speak (I did not force him to answer), I need to address methods of encouraging the tentative ELL student in the face of some insensitive (albeit normal for the age range) high school students. As the teacher, I may set the tone by example and by courtesy expectations for my classes.

NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) Resources

The website for the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) at http://www.nsta.org includes a Science Store link which has a number of useful resources for teaching ELLs in a science classroom. I ordered a book entitled "Science for English Language Learners: K-12 Classroom Strategies", which is available in part as free chapter downloads for both member and nonmembers of NSTA. Another free download, "Schoolyard Inquiry for English Language Learners", contains inquiry-based activities designed to help the ELL with life science concepts. Using the NSTA Science Store's search engine and typing "English Language Learners" results in a number of publications, some free and downloadable, and some for sale, that contain helpful strategies for science teachers of ELLs (and, as we know by now, these same strategies benefit all types of learners in our classrooms).

Using Power Point for Effective Lessons!

I had a very successful experience in using MS PowerPoint to plan the lecture components of some lesson plans for some high school biology classes in my recent Junior Field experience. While I would not plan to use this format every day in the classroom, nor for an entire class period of lecture (as with any type of lesson, using the same format all the time leads to a stale classroom), I found that I was able to engage students in the lesson by using Power Point as a method of addressing differential learning styles and ELLs within the classroom. Additionally, since today's students are subject to a constant bombardment of interactive media, using Power Point leads to a familiar type of experience for the students. I used an outline format, trying to keep the format, wording and presentation simple, and since I find that many of today's students seem unable to pull the main points out of reading; I hope that, by example, I can aid in this learning process (the ability to outline main ideas is crucial for today's college students). I shared the printed copy of the slides as a study guide for students, but not until the completion of the chapter (not wanting students to rely on the outline in place of taking notes). I also included slides that were a type of guided note-taking format, including the outline format and blank lines to fill in key concepts or vocabulary. Inclusion of graphics, charts and graphs assists not only visual learners, but also aids ELL students, as does the simplified outline format. I was able to include links to animations and websites; again the thought being that the more visual associations with seeing the words with pictures and diagrams, along with having the students write the words during guided note-taking, assist all types of learning styles. Using a remote device to control the slideshow, while stopping to discuss and involve students in the lecture, and using the laserpointer to highlight the screen details, all allowed me to place myself in the classroom (and walk around), as opposed to standing in front and lecturing. Another technique, which especially aided ELLs, was that I was able to use color fonts to highlight parts of words and to visually group similar concepts and vocabulary. Finally, the internet is filled with free, downloadable templates of lesson plans and interactive games which can be adapted to any curriculum (I used an interactive Jeopardy game as a chapter review session); one of the ELL students in my classroom came up to me and was enthusiastic in his praise for the lessons I had created. He told me that he finally "got it", and that this technique was so helpful to him. It was such a rewarding experience for me as a teacher!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Videos worth watching!!

Last semester I watched a few videotapes regarding language acquisition. One of Noam Chomsky's theories, another about Piaget Stages of Development which directly involves language correlations, and others regarding bilingualism. In order to give you the reference numbers, I needed to go back to our University library to find the location and names of several of those videotapes, here you have part of the list. I know you will be able to locate others at the Multimedia Center, located on the first floor.

Library Ref.
You Must Have Been a Bilingual Baby P118.2.Y68X ………my favorite!
Oh Say What They See P.118.037.1983
Out of the Mouth of Babes P.118.087.2004
A Child’s Guide to Language P.118.2C45.1993
Learning to Communicate (The First Three Years) P.118 L.42.1993
A World of Gestures

Pilar

Check out the Blog from the other class!

http://ellsinmainstreamclasses.blogspot.com/

Thank you for a GREAT BLOG

I've been reading all along; visiting the sites you list, and thinking about your experiences, opinions and ideas. I've got to tell you, I'm really impressed with your "work" on this Blog. I started to comment on some of your postings, but have decided that it was too much, and I'm beginning to repeat myself.

"Great idea. Thanks for the info. That's really perceptive of you. Good for you for making the most of a teachable moment. That's brilliant! I wish I thought of that. Good for you! You're going to be a great teacher."

It's almost as if I could take each posting and pick one of the phrases above. Your comments on others' postings are also spot on. Several of you have emailed me to ask if you could continue blogging. My answer: BY ALL MEANS!

Full Disclosure: I'm back in my office to print out your papers. My home computer crashed earlier this week and I'll read those that have been submitted today over the weekend and retrieve the rest probably on Monday morning. I'm also posting this very same entry on both F1 & F3. Both of your classes did a bang-up job!

A few of you had a problem handing the paper in on time, and fulfilling the blog numbers on time. I will accept late stuff, but I'll have to take some points off--it's only fair to those who made a point of doing assignments on schedule.

Now here's the part that I regret: I wish you guys all used your real names. I can't place many of you; three meetings wasn't enough for me to get a handle of you individuals. If this wasn't summer, and this course wasn't one credit, I'd ask you to come get your papers from me in my office so I could have a little chat with each of you. I won't ask you for this; just wanted to let you know how I feel.

Enjoy your summer and travel if you're able to--it's the best learning experience I can think of!

My Terrific Junior Field Experience

I feel that my junior field experience is not over because several of the children in my classes still come to visit me at my work, which is across the street from the school! Yesterday one boy told another that I usually have cookies for them. I laughed and told him that if I knew they were coming I would bake for them. They said without skipping a beat, "We'll be back next Monday, and chocolate chip is our favorite!" I had baked two kinds of cookies for them on my last day there so he wanted to put in his order. The students in my classes were mostly African-American and Hispanic. My cooperating teacher was fantastic - everything a teacher should be. She was open and giving of information, and she recently called to tell me she might be moved to the third grade and asked if I wanted to student teach with her. She was an alternate route teacher, and very sensitive to my fear of failure by saying that everyone makes mistakes in the beginning. She recommended starting with third, fourth or fifth grade as a teacher, because in many districts the subjects are taught by different teachers. Her class was language arts, but if she moves to third grade she will teach math and science. Her reason for suggesting these grades is that a new teacher, even though having 60 students, only has to write lesson plans for one subject. Although she had students at three different levels and had a number of ELL students who were out of the ESL program, she only had to modify her basic plans for each level. The administration and other teachers were warm and welcoming and I felt that I belonged, although a boy in the slowest class said during the first week that he thought I was too old to be a college student. I told him that since a 95 year old woman had just graduated from college, it was OK for me. He was a boy who had no parents and was staying with a classmate who lived with his grandmother. So many of these children have tough stories. I gravitated to the students who were yelled at for misbehaving, and tried to get through to them with humor and sensitivity. I paid attention to what they liked and tried to work with them. It was great. They embarrassed me as I was about to begin my second observation by asking my advisor in unison if I could stay another week and go with them on their class trip. It must have seemed that I had paid them off to say it! They are mostly wonderful children who need positive attention and encouragement. I did not delude myself into thinking that it would be as easy as it was if I were their primary teacher and responsible for their grades and behavior, but by treating them with respect I received respect in return. I also tried to introduce fun things into the lessons. When we were working on authors' point of view and how to write formal and informal directions, I had the students do origami and write informal directions from their experience. The higher level students also got to do a lesson where they were given origami directions with pictures but no writing, and had to decipher the directions and write formal directions and then try making their object by following their own interpretations. While doing this they also got a lesson in history and Japanese culture. Their fifth grade promotion will be next week, and I will be there to applaud their achievements, many of them continuing to overcome huge obstacles to succeed.

Junior Field Experience!

My Junior Field finished about a week ago. I must say, it was an experience to remember! I will give you a little info on the type of school I was placed in. My content area is Spanish and I was place to complete my Junior Field in an Elizabeth middle school, with prodominately African American and Hispanic students. A tough bunch of kids I must say, but I survived!

I was surprised to learn that even though this school is one of the toughest middle schools in Elizabeth, many students were eager to learn. I had a wonderful co-operating teacher who helped me with everything that she could.

While doing my Field experience, I also learned that a teacher should not act fake with his or her students because students can always sense when a teacher is being sincere or not. I got to experience first hand what students really think about some of their teachers. A teacher shouldn't only see his/her students as students, but also as human beings. Even though students have their own issues, we as teachers must understand where they are coming from and have patience.

I also had the experience to observe a special education classroom of six students. I must say, this was an experience that I will never forget. Even though these were a tough bunch of kids, most of them had respect for my co-operating teacher, and me as well. They were very curious to know who I was and if I would be working at the school next school year. One of the kids was in a foster home and really craved attention and love. He will be graduating the eighth grade now, but he acted as though he was still in the fourth. It was sad to hear about some of these cases.

Furthermore, I had many intelligent students who were anxious to know what activites I had prepared for them. They enjoy working in co-operative groups, and using the computer to complete their assignments.

In conlusion, my experience overall was a great one and I look forward to completing my Senior Intership. My Senior intership will be completely different because I got placed in a Gifted and Talented school. That will be a completely different experience.

Learning about your students' backgrounds

http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/reachingout/backgrounds


I think that as educators we must most definately get to know our students background. Many times it can help us understand why they do what they do and we will be able to help them more. This website talks about that and about the different aspects that play a role in the students life, such as values, culture, home environment and language.

This website states, The English language learners (ELLs) in your classroom may represent diverse languages and cultures from around the world. The majority of ELL families in the United States come from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America. These Hispanic families may have many things in common, such as customs, foods, dances, values, and the Spanish language. However, there are also many rich cultural differences within and between countries like Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, and El Salvador.

The more you learn about where your students come from, the easier your job will become.

What Teachers Make...

This is something that was given to me by a professor last semester and I think I will treasure it forever! If possible I will frame it in my classroom. This is dedicated to all the wonderful teachers in the world!

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.

One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers:

"Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?"

Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make? (She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 minutes without an ipod, game cube or movie rental...You want to know what I make?" (She paused again and looked at each and every single person at the table.)

"I make kids wonder.
I make them question .
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make then have respect and take responsibility for their actions.
I teach them to write and then I make them write.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them show all their work in math.
I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity.
I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
I make my students stand to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, because we live in the United States of America.
Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."

(Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.) "Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant...You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make?"

There is much truth in this statement:
"Teachers make every other profession."

The Diversity of English Language Learners

http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/reachingout/diversity

I found this site to be very interesting. This site stated that english language learners (ELLs) come to school with a wide variety of background knowledge, language, and literacy skills. The schooling experience of ELLs is impacted by many factors such as time in school, quality of instruction, transiency, home environment, and past emotional experiences in school. The following vignettes illustrate some of these differences.

The article illustrates varios characteristics of ELL students. And if appropriate programs are offered, ELL student have a better opportunity to develop literacy skills early in their school careers (pre-kindergarten to second grade) .

For chart and more information go to the website above.

The Very Best Teachers:

This is something that was given to me by a great professor who wanted nothing more than to make all of his students Future Great Teachers. I thought that this might be something that everyone would want to take a look at and think about. As teachers or future great teachers we should all have these qualities and abilities.

The Very Best Teachers:
  • Are enthusiastic and upbeat
  • Have high expectations for all students
  • Believe all students can learn
  • Are positive role models
  • Are skilled in classroom management
  • Respond to the needs of ALL students
  • Provide a nurturing climate to help develop a positive self-esteem in students
  • Enjoy working with students from all cultures and backgrounds
  • Are aware of the changing family structure
  • Are flexible, open to change, and willing to learn
  • Enjoy working on a team
  • Have a sense of humor
  • Are committed to teaching and are loyal to the profession
  • Have high expectations of themselves as professionals
  • Keep up with educational research and literature
  • Look forward to professional development and never stop learning
  • Communicate with parents consistently and keep the image of school positive
  • Enjoy life every day
  • Plan their time wisely
  • Are thankful for their many blessings and take time to "stop and smell the roses"

How to Develop a Lesson Plan that Includes ELLs

http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/content/lessonplan

This website has a lot of good information and suggestions that teachers can use to accommodate and help make the life of their English language learners a bit easier. This particular website helps teachers create a lesson plan that includes English language learners.
The website states that English language learners often have problems understanding literature and mastering science, math, and social studies concepts because they cannot comprehend the textbooks for these subjects. Depending on their different stages of English proficiency and literacy, ELLs will benefit from explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, along with other skills that a well-designed lesson can address.

The following are suggestions that this website gives for Comprehensive lessons:
  • building background knowledge
  • explicit instruction and modeling
  • guided practice
  • peer practice
  • assessment of content learned

The article states that Teacher-student interactions, as well as peer interactions, are critical for learning. Because of the diversity in experiences and backgrounds that ELLs bring to the classroom, it is essential to prepare lessons that can address a wide range of needs. This broad sweep will also benefit all other students in your class.

Components of a comprehensive lesson

Teacher preparation
Survey the text to:

  • determine your standard or objective
  • eliminate unnecessary information that does not meet your objective
  • elect the concepts to teach
  • choose specific vocabulary to pre-teach
  • develop assessments to test that content

Building background knowledge

  • Create interest in the subject by using pictures, real objects, maps, or personal experiences. Say the names of objects as often as you can so ELLs can remember them. Relate material to students' lives when possible.
  • Build text-specific knowledge by providing students with information from the text beforehand, particularly if the text is conceptually difficult or has an abundance of information that is important.
  • Establish the purpose for reading (e.g., "Now we are going to read to find out about a country called France. What are some things we might learn about France as we read?")
  • Select a specific comprehension strategy for students to use. For example, decide to focus on the main idea, cause and effect, or comparing and contrasting.

I have provided a link to this website. You can further read about how to pre-teach vocabulary and many more great ideas. I hope this information is helpful!

Cooperative Learning

http://www.utc.edu/Administration/WalkerTeachingResourceCenter/FacultyDevelopment/CooperativeLearning/index.html
This is a great website not only to learn about cooperative learning but also for many other useful topics and resources. Cooperative learning is used more everyday because it brings out so many positive outcomes in the classroom. Students use pro-social behaviors to complete the tasks needed. Students recieve feedback not only from the teacher but also from other peers. Therefore students become more motivated when they work in groups.
This website also talks about cooperative learning structures and techniques, which I found interesting because there are so many things you can do than jsut putting the students into groups.
The one I like the most was One Minute Papers. It is almost a form of assessment which is so important to do now a days in a classroom. Basically students comment on the following questions: What was the most important or usefull thing you learned today? What tow important questions do you still have; what reamains unclear? What would you like to know more about?
And this great because a good teacher always focuses on high expections and should always know if their students actulally learned and gain from the lesson. You do not just cover the material.

Gangs in New Jersey Schools

During my first week of junior field experience, the three fifth grade classes were taken to an informal presentation by the district security officer to discuss gangs. It was upsetting to me to discover how prevalent gangs are in New Jersey communities, and how much these young children knew about them. A few even knew the initiations that girls had to endure to become members. When listing the more than ten gang names with the officer, some were ethnic, and in researching I discovered that sometimes students who move here from other countries join gangs to fit in. After the discussion, two students got into a heated discussion because one of the boys had a brother who was shot and is paralyzed due to gangs, and a girl was indifferent, saying that it didn't matter as long as he was alive. She had a cousin who was shot but was OK. I found it very upsetting to try to help mediate their exchange. The boy was really angry at the girl's insensitivity, yet had been one of the kids who knew the most about gangs. I think that this is important information for teachers to know, even in suburban districts. I hope you find the information as useful as I did. Here are three New Jersey websites that give information. The first is from the office of the NJ state attorney general and has a lot of information, including a video clip. Terry
http://www.njgangfree.org/home.htm
The second has NJ gang statistics from 2001-2004.
http://www.state.nj.us/njsp/info/pdf/njgangsurvey-2001-2004.pdf
The third is a gang awareness guide for recognizing the signs.
http://www.nj.gov/oag/gang-signs-bro.pdf

Framework

http://nadabs.tripod.com/culture/

I came across this aritical from aprevious education course, and I find it very useful. This article speaks about how a framework for building a cultural understanding is based on process skills and it includes both factual and socio-linguistc content. I found the four dimensions interesting.
1. Convention: Students need to reconize and understand how people in a given culture
typically behave in common, everyday situations.
2. Connotation: Students need to know the significant meanings that are associated with
words.
3. Conditioning: Students need to know that people act in a manner consistent with their
cultural frame of reference, and that all people respond in culturally conditioned ways to
basic human needs.
4. Comprehension: Students need the skills of analysis, hypothesis formation, and tolerance
ambiguity.
These four dimensions are so true, and not only for students but for adults to. I think sometimes we forget that typically someone might act or do something different because of their culture and we end up judging them instead of trying to learn why.

Selecting vocabulary words to each English language learners.

http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/content/vocabulary

This article was given to me last semester in one of my education classes. I found it to be very interesting and useful and thought it might be helpful to many of you.
This article states that a student's maximum level of reading comprehension is determined by his of her knowledge of words. The article also states that this word knowledge allows students to comprehend text. As teachers or future teachers, we can explicitly teach word meanings to improve comprehension. Furthermore, it is essential that a student know what a word means and knows it in all the following dimensions:
  • The ability to define a word
  • The ability to recognize when to use that word
  • Knowledge of its multiple meanings
  • The ability to decode and spell that word

The article suggests that it is very important to teach key words that children will need to comprehend texts, learn the content in those texts, and pass tests. Words should be taught through direct instruction of word meanings as well as through discussions about words, including prefixes, suffixes, and roots, all of this combined with alot of practice and reading.

Furthermore, the article states that for English language learners, vocabulary development is especially critical for their ability to read and comprehend texts. The article also discusses a selection of vocabulary words that are to be taught to ELLs which are grouped into three tiers. I will briefly discuss each group, and you can further read about it on the website that I have provided.

  • Example of Tier 1 Word: Tier 1 words are words that ELLs typically know the concept of in their primary language, but not the label in English. An example given in the article was the word butterfly. This is a word that English language learners may not know, but it can be easily taught by pointing to a picture of a butterfly during text discussion.
  • Example of Tier 2 Word: Tier 2 words are more complex then Tier 1 words. They may also be more abstract then concrete. The article suggests words that have connections to other words and concepts, such as, between, among, by, combine, and estimate.
  • Example of Tier 3 Word: Tier 3 words are low-frequency words that are found moslty in content books in the upper grades. Some examples include, witticism, isotope, procastinate, or words that are not demonstratable or cognates. These words are rarely encountered in the early grades, but if they do appear, the article suggests that a teacher can translate them or briefly explain them in either English or in the ELLs' first language.

Websites for Teachers

I was browsing the internet and I came across this website http://www.eslkidstuff.com/LinksMenu.htm that has several links to other website that are extremely helpful for teachers to use. Some of these links include flashcards, worksheets, quizzes, and games that help make it easier for students to learn the English language. What website would you use and how would you use it in the classroom? The websites that I would use are the ones that have the flashcards because I feel that students learn better, when they see pictures because it is easier for them to remember the pictures than the words.

Immigration Lesson

Due to the fact that this is a class on having students in the class learning the English language I felt that this lesson could be interesting for students and the teacher to learn from. I did this when I was in fifth grade in a social studies class. First each student has to find a country to immigrate from into the United States. It was their job to learn about the country and culture and really become a native, we were given journals to write in daily based on the life of a child from that country. I remember keeping a journal and some daily chores would have been to help out after school in the potato farm. Since Ireland is known for potatoes I figured that my family would be potato farmers. I researched farmers and was able to truly get an realization of what it was like to live on a farm. Most of the Irish are religious so I went to church on Sundays. Along with keeping a journal we were required to find what the native language and customs were and asked to try and learn a few saying in that language. After this we were given a State to immigrate to. We again had to learn about the state and what life was like to live in that particular state. For example I was from Ireland and immigrated to Maine. After the immigration to America we were asked to describe the changes asked on us in order to live here. I remember we were given green card and everyday that was our entrance into the classroom. She wanted us to get a realization of what people go through when immigrating to America. I think this would help students get an idea of how different cultures work as well as the idea that language barriers exist from country to country.I feel that a lesson such as this could make ELLs fell more comfortable about not being native to America and give other students a realization of what life is like outside of America. At the end of this lesson were had a festival for student s to bring in food from their country, dress in clothing native to that country, and teach saying in other languages. It was a learning experience for everyone.

Classroom Management

Classroom management is a major part to having a successful learning environment. The class is the place where students spend most of their day, and so a child should feel comfortable in the classroom. While observing a second grade class I noticed some of the strong and week points that the teacher had in trying to keep the classroom organized and under control.Organization is a key factor to having good classroom management. In the classroom I observed the desks were arranged into clusters of five, making little groups for the student to learn in. By doing this the teachers relied on the students to be in control of the noise level because having student in groups tends to cause noise levels to raise. In order for this to work the teacher set up a reward chart for the classroom and which ever groups were the most well behaved receive a point. Every time she would say put your stuff away after an activity she would look around for the group that did this and was sitting quietly. They would receive a point and eventually the points added up to receiving a prize. By doing this the teachers taught the students that it is their responsibility to be respectful and quiet and most of the time they weren’t disruptive. The teacher never really yelled at the class to be quiet, which is a smart idea. She would just say lets see who will be quiet first and the children would scramble around to clear their desk and be quiet. This was fun to watch and it seemed that the children like this because it gave them a chance to get a point. The classroom had a set of jobs for the students to be in charge of such as collecting papers every morning. To start each week the teacher would change the students’ names around giving them different jobs so everyone had a chance to be each one. Having the students do thing in the classroom made them feel apart of the class and responsible for keeping the classroom clean and having a flow between activities. There were people responsible for cleaning the boards and collecting papers, while others were responsible for other daily events.Every classroom should have a set of rules posted in the classroom with things the children can and can’t do. This was the one thing I felt was lacking in this second grade classroom because it gave the children too much space to act up. The children would tend to wander around the class or speak without raising their hand. Although this was a rule of the class because every time a student would speak out the teacher would say please raise your hand first, it wasn’t known. It was hard to figure out what the rules were because they weren’t posted anywhere in the class. I think if they were posted the children my tend to follow them more often because it would be something they could read and begin to learn. I know that there wasn’t a rule about getting out of their seats, at least not a noticeable rule. The children would get up when ever they needed to, to get a paper or sharpen their pencil which made the class tend to be very active making it harder to teach at times. The classroom didn’t have many different learning stations for the children to spend time in. They never really used to carpet to do anything while I was there and the reading center was small so instead they would bring the books back to their desks. I felt the teacher should have allowed them to spread out on the carpet when they were reading because it gives the student a change rather than sitting in a desk all day. Although there weren’t many learning stations the stations they had were well organized. The books were nicely placed on shelves, with students’ names on some if they were in the middle of reading a specific book. I found this to be a unique idea but very useful because the students were able to finish a book they started without anyone else taking the book. This worked farley well but one student wrote her name on four books and wasn’t reading any of them which teaches them that they need to share. The teacher made sure that this was noticed and made point to let them know that they need to share. She sould tell themif they weren’t reading a book to take their name out of it and after a while the students would do this. While the children read it gave the teacher time to grade papers or prepare for the next activity. The children became louder than usual during this time but it was allowed as long as they weren’t yelling. The teacher has a list of the students names lined up in the doorway, in an order. This was the order of the line for when they left the classroom. It made getting in line quick and easy because the students knew where in line they belonged and no one was fighting about who was first. Each week the teacher would rotate the line so a new person was first for the week. This was effective for getting in line after music class and lunch because other teachers would tell them to line up and it would be done nice and quiet. The teacher would continue the rewards chart for when they were walking in the hallway and while in other classes so it caused the children to be more quiet and respectful while outside of the classroom as well.The last thing that I found as a plus to this teacher’s classroom was that she didn’t allow students to tell on others, rather she would ask them if it was something they did. They usually would say no and go sit down. After this happened she would tell the class that a person shouldn’t tell on others because it isn’t nice. She would tell them that we are a class doesn’t tattle and no one in this class should.Overall the second grade classroom was well managed by the teacher and she has special techniques to getting her students nice and quiet. I feel that more of the rules of the classroom should be posted for the students to actually be able to see them, but the way it was setup was effective. The only thing that I found to be disruptive during the class was when a student would just get up in the middle of a lesson to sharpen their pencil without asking, but this was allowed. There weren’t many problems that occurred and when something did the teacher handled it easily. I know when teaching classroom management is just as important as the lesson in order to have a successful class. There are many website to search for helpful tips on managing the classroom. I suggest that as future teachers research this and find what works best for you.

Multiple Intelligences

“The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults.” These intelligences are: Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"), Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart"), Spatial intelligence ("picture smart"), Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart"), Musical intelligence ("music smart"), Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart"), Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart"), Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart").It is important to know that you are teaching a wide range of learners and that it take them different ways to learn. Here is a website that breaks down the multiple intelligences and gives ideas on how to teach to all styles.http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Access Excellence website

The website was inadvertently deleted from my last blog and should be: http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/ATG/

Access Excellence Actitivities Exchange

This is a great website, especially for science teachers, at any grade level. Access Excellence is the national health museum website; the activities exchange allows the user to search for lesson plans based on several criterion, including content, grade level, National Science Education Standards, and special categories, e.g., ESL. If you aware, and you should be made aware, of any English language learners in your classroom, this site proves to be very helpful in designing lessons to include activities that will address the needs of these special learners. Of course, these activities usually end up enhancing the educational experience of all learners in your classroom, including those with other learning issues.

Visiting an ESL Class

During my Junior Field experience, I had the opportunity to visit an ESL (level 2) class. The class was composed of twelve students, ranging in age from 14 to 20 years, at the freshman to senior level of high school. Students had mainly resided in the United States from two to four years and were from Peru and Haiti. All students at this level are "mainstreamed" in their academic classes at this particular high school. Since the exercise of speaking with me gave them opportunity to practice their speaking skills, the teacher was anxious for me to ask them questions. I found this to be a wonderful way to gain individual, first-hand feedback on what English Language Learners like and do not like about their mainstream classroom situations. Once the students knew that I was interested in their responses, they were very forthcoming in giving me good and constructive hints for dealing with an English Language Learner in a mainstream class. First, including a visual representation of vocabulary, (both text and pictures and/or diagrams, if possible), in an orally-presented lesson is very helpful. (I shared with them a description of my Power Point lessons, detailed in another blog on this website; they were very excited by this type of lesson.) Also, all students indicated they were not comfortable asking a teacher to stop and explain a concept or word, mainly due to embarrassment and/or frequent teasing from fellow classmates. They also indicated that it would be very helpful for the teacher to come over to the student during "classwork" time and ask if the student understands the assignment (but unobtrusively since they are easily embarrassed by their limited language skills). When I commented to them that I gave them a lot of credit for taking courses in a language that is not native, they responded that they wished that all teachers felt that way. What I got out of my short classroom visit with the ELL students is that the teaching methods I am working on for my Biology/Science classes will be helpful to these students, and perhaps more importantly, that it is crucial to be sensitive to the unique emotional stresses that English Language Learners are subject to in a high school classroom

Theatre Teachers

This post is for the other Theatre teachers in our class. http://www.creativedrama.com/ This is a great website for anyone interrested in teaching theatre to children from elementary school to high school. The website has sections on creative drama, classroom ideas, theatre games that can be used as warmups, plays for production (which includes the ages appropriate for each show, the amount of characters each play has, who owns the rights, and a very general synopsis), and a list of suggested books that can be used when teaching. Good luck Ilana & Anu!

Web-sites for new teachers

I found two great web-sites that are dedicated to helping new teachers. The first one, "A New Teacher's Survival Guide" can be found at http://hannahmeans.bizland.com/. The second web-site, "Survival Guide for New Teachers" can be found at http://www.ed.gov/teachers/become/about/survivalguide/index.html. Both of these web-sites can be a lot of help to new teachers. The web-sites offer ways to prepare before school starts and tips for when the school year begins including how to work with parents.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

ELL: Working with Children from whom English is a New Language

Please take a look at this website. It has some great facts and a whole area of content on ELL students. One fact states that in the year 2010, over thirty percent of all school-age children will come from homes in which the primary language is not English. Something else on the site that I found helpful was sample lessons for the first day to help children get acquinted. Also check out the tips and strategies for communicating and tutoring ELL. http://www.bnkst.edu/literacyguide/ell.html

Thank you,
Cara

Junior Field Has Come to an End!

My junior field was an experience I truly will never forget. I went into my junior field not knowing if I still wanted to teach. I did not enjoy my education classes I took previous to junior field, so my expectations were low. I had emailed my cooperating teacher about a week before starting, asking questions about what they were learning, the school's schedule, and other questions pertaining to school activities. I had no response, so the first day, my expectations were even lower. Yet when I met my teacher I smiled and pretended I was happy to be there. Then I found out that I was going to be with two teachers instead of one, due to my original teacher not being tenured. My first teacher walked me to the classroom and said here it is. He was my original teacher that I was assigned and I emailed. Not trying to be rude or disrespectful, I asked him very politely if he had received my email. Right away without any hesitation he handed me a folder with all the information I had asked for and even more. I was relieved. I know that is a small detail, but to me I was attempting to get a head start on things I was not even sure I wanted to do and became disappointed with not receiving a response. My negative attitude I originally had towards my teacher changed with his eagerness to learn about me and his attitude towards teaching. Not even ten minutes later, my second cooperating teacher walked in the classroom, introduced himself, and was asking questions about myself right off the bat. They were interested in what I was looking to achieve and how they could help. My first week went well, I still was not sure if I wanted to be a teacher, yet I loved the atmosphere. As the second week my attitude changed little by little. I loved the students, and I could not have asked for better cooperating teachers. They enjoyed what they did, and did not mind going to work every day. The sixth grade is what made my time enjoyable. They were so interested in me and asked me so many questions, and always wanted me to teach instead of my cooperating teacher. By the end of my second week my attitude changed 100%. My third week was sad and exciting at the same time. I was excited to start my summer yet sad to leave some of the students I had grown attachment to. Some of the girls made me cookies and cards. One group of the "popular" boys made me a banner which I was so pleased to receive. I still am not sure if teaching is for me, but I do know that this experience was one of the best I have ever had, and will never forget it.

Monday, June 11, 2007

It's Over!

Junior Field has been over for one week, so we have all had time to reflect on our experiences. The 15 days FLEW by for me. During the second week, I really got to know the students and I started to build relationships with them. By the third week, I felt like I belonged with them, so I was sad to see it end. Teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students about performing was not as hard as I thought it would be. As long as I went into the classroom prepared and confident, I was fine. It was keeping the kids focused that sometimes proved to be a challenge. I am definitely looking forward to teaching at the same high school in the fall. Good luck to everyone!

The world is changing...

I found some interesting information at http://www.ncte.org/edpolicy/ell. The web-site is for The National Council of Teachers of English. The very top of the web-site says:

According to the 2000 census 47 million people or 18% of the population in the United States speak a language other than English at home. By 2030, this number will increase to 40%. As the number of English Language Learners has increased, the politics of English language learning have become more prominent and complicated. Issues such as funding for bilingual education and ESL programs, the pros and cons of making English the official language of the U.S. and the status of ELL students in the context of testing are all sites of contested views.

A Frustrating Conversation

As I said during our first class, I did not have any ELL students during my time student teaching. I did, however, come into contact with a non-English speaking custodian. Every day this sweet woman would greet me during hall duty, but she never said anything more than "hello." During one of my last days student teaching, she came up to me trying to tel l me something about the lock on the bathroom door, but I could not understand a word she was saying. I asked another teacher if she could understand the custodian, but she could not either. The custodian was becoming very frustrated over the fact that neither of us could understand her. Finally she gave up and angrily walked away. I felt bad for the woman, but there was nothing I could do. I knew that I had to share this on our blog because it was one of the only student teaching experiences I had that had anything to do with our class.

Name Games

Learning student’s names can be a difficult task for a teacher. Especially when there are 23-25 students in a classroom. My strategy for learning student’s name is by using "name games." I found this website that as some games that can be used for learning students names. The website is http://www.residentassistant.com/games/namegames.htm
The Learning Pyramid charts the average retention rate for various methods of teaching. According to the learning pyramid teaching others/
immediate use of learning will have the students retain 90% of the information and lectures only 5%. In order to maximize learning experience the teacher should combine the following lectures, reading, audio-visual, demonstration, discussion group, practice by doing, and teach others/immediate us of learning. Go to the following website for more information: http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm

ESL Lesson Planning

Since there are more ESL students in the classroom then ever before, I felt that it would be a great idea to find a website online that would help teachers enhance multiple ways to include ESL techniques in the classroom. After browsing the internet, I found an excellent website, http://www.tefl.net/esl-lesson-plans/index.htm, that contains several activities, worksheets, quizzes, games, reading material, and teaching tips. All of these activities include either grammar, vocabulary, games, speaking skills, writing skills, or listening skills for all grade levels. Many of these are classic activities used around the world wherever people teach languages. They can be extremely valuable in introducing dynamism and reinforcing the points that you have taught. I would definitely recommend this website to any teacher at any grade level because it is an excellent resource for teachers to assist them in their lesson planning.

African Beading


The story of African beading is very interesting. I would love for you to research it and let me know what you find. I promise you, you are sure to learn something new!

Worldwide Languages and Cultures

After learning so much about ELL, it got me to thinking about all of the languages and cultures that do exist around the world. (There are 6912 languages spoken around the world to be exact!) I researched the internet to find a site that would offer all of us a reliable “go to” database for worldwide languages and cultures and I came up with: http://www.vistawide.com/languages/languages.htm This site offers everything from facts and statistics to 15 language learning resources to where can I learn a language? I was amazed at all the information that I found.
I hope that all of you take the time to look at this site because there is definitely something for everyone, especially for those who want to become educators. The reason being is that Vistawide provides enough pertinent information that enables us to gain a much more thorough understanding of all of the cultures around the world, and if they cannot, they offer other sites to visit that can help us learn even more. This way, if there is ever a student in your class that is an ELL learner, and there most likely will be, you can check out the site for information that can help you better assist them! Go there now!! =)

The experience of a lifetime =)

My junior field experience was everything I thought it was going to be and more. Don’t get me wrong, I knew it was going to be a wonderful learning adventure, but I didn’t know just how much 3 weeks could change my already existing schema of what teaching was all about.
I went it to it on the very first day without knowing what to expect or what was expected of me, but after meeting with my cooperating teacher and discussing his notions of what a good teacher was and what he thought would make my experience worthwhile, I knew that I was going to be up for challenge that would either reaffirm my belief of wanting to be a teacher or alter it completely.
Within just 3 days I was already thoroughly participating within the classroom environment. I reviewed homework, graded papers, and answered all of the questions my students came up with. It was great. And by the end of the second week, I pretty much had the floor to myself! I was Ms. Cerrone, “the 7th and 8th grade social studies teacher.”
During my experience, I was able to create a unit plan, with my cooperating teachers advisement, teach it to the over 120 students I had throughout the day. It was exciting to see that I was able to really relate to the students and teach them things they had never even known existed. I got a glimpse of what my future could hold and I am now surer than ever, that teaching was meant for me. I look forward to my senior field and I can only hope that it will be just as rewarding as the one I just completed.
I hope you all had just as wonderful of an experience as I did, and I look forward to hearing about them! =)

Sunday, June 10, 2007

The ELL Outlook

I found this great site called The ELL Outlook. It is a bi-monthly online newsletter about ELLs in public schools. It not only gives helpful information about tips for your classroom but it also provides the latest research and programs available in the field. The best part...subscriptions are free!

http://www.coursecrafters.com/ELL-Outlook/2005/may_jun/index.html

Activites for ESL Students

I was browsing the internet and I found this excellent website, http://a4esl.org/, which contains several activites to help students learn the English language. Some of these activites include quizzes, tests, exercises, and puzzles to assist students learn English in a more fun and interesting fashion. This website consists of several important areas but the main three include learning English only, learning two languages, and a place for teachers. In the English section there are various crossword puzzles, vocabulary quizzes, and grammar activites to make learning the language more enjoyable for the students. All these activites have different diificulty levels so as the students learn the language, they can advance at a faster rate. The next area, learning two languages, includes not only the most common languages, but many numerous languages that make this website a great resource because it can benefit multiple nationalities. The final section is a place for teachers to refer to help assist them think of ideas to use in their classroom. I feel that this is a great site because it includes several activites that help make learning fun and enjoyable for the students.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Everything ESL

I found this website http://www.everythingesl.net/ which is dedicated to teachers working with ELL in their classroom from grade levels k-12. It offers many useful resources for working with and teaching ELL. The site has everything from classroom tips, lesson plan modifications, discussion boards, and activities. Although we may never find ourselves working with ELL in our classrooms we must always be prepared to teach them which is why I feel this website is worth taking a look at. I have learned through out this class that although it may be difficult for teachers to find the right teaching strategy that works with each individual ELL it is even more difficult to be the student. Having resources such as all the website we have found and being prepared will be extremely beneficial when put in such atmospheres.

Helping ELL's in the Classroom

I found this website that I round pretty interesting for helping ELL sudents in the classroom. The website is http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/help_ELL.phtml and focuses on the main areas of Considerations for Teaching Non-Native Speakers, Academic Language Skills Take Time, Respect Cultural Differences, and offers some General Teaching Strategies for ELL Students. Aside from having great ideas forh helping ELL students it also provides information and tips on teaching. Hope you find it useful.

Friday, June 8, 2007

humorous uno

I was looking online for good websites to help teach children English. I found this one very interesting. I especially enjoy the uno game. The game helps teach words such as on, behind, in, under, by, and in front of. It teaches these words but using silly phrases such as the rabbit is in the toilet so that the children are humored while learning, which will in the end, help them to remember the phrases better. I hope you guys find this wesite as useful as I did.
http://www.reggie.net/teaching/

Somthing I learned from the NJ state website

When I was doing the "big assignment" paper. I went through the New Jersey State Department website a bunch of times, wondering what I felt was the most important and what can I implement in my classroom. I really found listening to Sample Audio Segments of English Language Learners was so helpful. If you have not listened to them, you should take the time and do so. It is really infomative to hear first hand how these students felt within the classroom. Sometime teachers and other students underestimate what new students/ELL really know. Thanks!

TPR STORY TELLING

TPR Story telling is a new method to teach languages. So far,the creators and editors have published the teacher, the student manuals and the reading materials in Spanish, French, Italian and German. However, they have announced that soon they will publish the same method in the ELL version.
www.TPRSTORYTELLING.com
TPRISFUN@ aol.com
Or contact them at 800-TPR IS FUN
Pilar

Thursday, June 7, 2007

ELL Activities

As I was looking for information to include in my paper I came by this great site that has many different actvities for ELL students to do. Not only are there fun quizzes and crossword puzzles but there are sounds bites and games for students to practice their pronunciation and hearing of the English language. There is also a link for slang words which could help students fit in among their peers. Here is the site if anyone is interested


http://www.manythings.org/e/listening.html

Activities for ESL students

http://a4esl.org/
This site contains useful tools that can be used by teachers when teaching ELL students. The top of the page contains grammar quizzes that are listed by their level of difficulty. There are separate ones for students who only speak English and also for those who are bilingual. There are also vocabulary and crossword puzzles for students to complete. I opened up some of the links for the grammar quizzes and explored them. It provided you with the correct answer if you happened to get it wrong. This teaches students and helps them to learn. This site also contains podcasts that were posted by ESL students about various topics that you can listen to. This site also has various links of useful tools for teachers. For example there is a link that helps with quizzes, in the areas of writting and using them.

What an experiece...

So junior field has come and gone much faster than I expected it to. My time spent in the 4th grade classroom I was assigned too has left me with not only great memories but valauble teaching strategies I will take with me as I complete my education and start my career. I hope all of you have gotten to have great experiences during your field placements as well. The main thing that I feel all of us have in common right now is the eye opener to how many ELL there are in our class rooms and the various ways of working with and helping each individual ELL in their own way. Although I have been aware of how difficult it may be to teach English to a non-speaking English student I was not aware of the many different levels and stages that teachers should be considerate of as they work with ELL students. As I have been working on my paper I was intrigued by all the information offered about ELL. I plan to keep this website in my bookmarks for future reference when teaching. I am going to assume that many teachers and student teachers are not full knowledgable on all the ways and tips to help ELL students to become more successful in the classroom based on what I have learned from this class and other teachers and professionals I have discussed the topic with. As future teachers we should enlighten out co-workers, peers, and everyone else around us about the all the resources available to us that will help these students and not just set expectations for them to achieve.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

http://businesswithturkey.hypermart.net/tourist-guide/turkish_culture.shtml

This website is about Turkish culture habits. Some of you may not find it that interesting but I enjoyed reading it. I start my internship in the fall and in my classroom I will have three students from Turkey.

Learning about different cultures

I substitute teach at the local middle school, and yesterday they had a Culture night. This school is very small and does not have any ELL nor do they have ESL teacher. Students are not exposed to various cultures among themselves and they know very little about their cultural background. This year was the first time school had the Culture night. Students and teachers were asked to participate by providing information on various cultures around the world such as language, food, cultural beliefs and superstitions, music, and engaging in different group games found around the world. I know that many schools have events like this on regular bases, but it was the first time for this school, and everyone enjoyed it.

Interesting things for ELL students

http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/english/vocabulary.html
I found this website to be a very useful tool for ELL students. It contains various vocabulary activities and games. The one link titled superkids school vocabulary 1 you are provided with a new vocabulary word, definition, and synonyms each day. The link titled interesting things for ESL students contains word searches. The topics of these were directed towards students. For example some topics were sports, body parts, colors, all things that students would find interesting. I really liked the internet picture dictionary. It contained several different languages to help students learn the difference in their native language compared to the English language. There is also a link containing different idioms for each letter of the alphabet. This is useful because students will be able to read a word or statement and see it used in an example, helping them to understand it's meaning and proper use.

Stories from former ELL students

http://www.celt.sunysb.edu/ell/default.php
I found this extremely interesting. It has the accounts of six former ELL students, however you do need Quick Time for this to work but it will work without it, on my computer only four of the videos worked, just click the play arrow and listen to them tell you what their life as an ELL student was like. It is helpful for ELL students to find support and encouragement by listening to the struggles and successes of former students.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Strategies for working with English Language Learners

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/pigs/pig19.htm

This is a good website that offers strategies for teaching ELL students in Elementary and Middle school. It provides a description of who they are, understand cultural differences, understanding second language learners, instruction in the active learning classroom, etc. The site begins by describing how teachers may discover in the beginning of the school year that they have ELL students in their classroom. They may be unaware of how to handle the situation. The article mentions that teachers may have the question, "what do I do?" The site also provides answers to that question. Much of the suggestions that are provided are related to working within an active learning instructional model. You will find that working with ELL students can provide a resource to your classroom, aid the learning process for all of your students, and improve language skills and cross-cultural understanding for the entire class. The English language learners in your classroom will vary in their background, skills, and past experiences which will bring diversity into the classroom. First and foremost ELL students need to work on and build their English oral skills but that is not all. They also need to acquire skills to read and write in English as well. All of this cannot be accomplished at once; it needs to be done one step at a time. I like how the article stated that students from other cultures can have different views of how to be a student or to "do schooling." The example they used is that some students may not feel discussion in class is appropriate because in their culture it is disrespectful to ask questions to the teacher. This site ix useful and also provides information on building a home and school community, utilizing cultural diversity, and many more. I recommend this site to future teachers because it is very informative.

Congrats

I would first just like to say congratulations to my fellow classmates on hopefully a completion of Junior Field. I know that when I started I was extremely nervous but by the end I was astounded at how well I fit in and how I just did not want to let it go. However, summer must begin.
This is where I would just like to say a bit about my summer job and how it relates to different languages. Many people in America are fluent in other languages and as we know, Spanish is definitely at the top of that list. One thing I regret is not taking Spanish in high school. I work at Island Beach State Park and there is a very high rate of Spanish speaking families that visit the park on a daily basis. I wish that I could help them understand the park better and be able to do it in their nation tongue, however I can’t. So this means that they must use the little English that they know to understand what I am saying. America is a vastly diverse country and that is what makes us great, so it truly is important to respect everyone and not be turned off when someone can not speak English as well as we can.

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a useful tool because it requires students to interact with others as well as others in order ro accomplish different tasks. When small groups of students collaborate on a common task , they must clarify and negotiate with one another. This experience of interactive exchanges of information provides a rich language learnuing opportunity for English language learners. I agree eith this idea because I feel that students can learn from other students as well as their teachers. Sometimes it takes students working with others in order for the concept to be understood. A method mentioned in this packet is think, pair, share. My ID 2950 teacher would use this method with my class when we did partner and group work. This method requires students to think about the topic or question being askes, then find a partner, and lastly to take turns sharing each persons ideas without interupting their partner. Each partner would share all of their ideas while the other partner listened and then discussed when each person was finished. This is a really good idea because each student gets to think of something to share and then they can learn more information about the topic by discussing it with their partner.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

http://www.bnkst.edu/literacyguide/ell.html

A very useful website. Everything one needs to know about ELL.

http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/div/124545.htm

This research article provides useful information for us new teachers as well as for those who have taught for many years and are not sure how to handle ELL students. Besides useful statistics, article elaborates on the most obvious problem ELL students face in mainstream classrooms and that is teachers unfamiliarity on how to communicate with the student and allow him/her to feel welcomed.

Chapter 4: Academic/content area development

This chapter contains some great information. It begins by discussing the student-centered approach which includes teachers considering the various ways and factors that students learn best with. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is also mentioned. It says that his Gardner explains that although these intelligences are demonstrated in a wide variety of cultures, they may manifest themselves differently in different cultures. I also agree with a statement made by Nelson that said, "Focusing on and giving students time to nurture and develop their own intelligences result in students who are more apt to discover their own strengths, put more effort into improving their weak areas, and feel better about themselves." This will help students to learn in ways that are the most meaningful to them and help them best to succeed and excel. This chapter gives some areas in which we should focus upon and they include words, rhythm, pitch, melody, relationships, patterns, images, pictures, and color. We need to provide students with manipulating objects and long term meaningful projects. I believe these are experiences that students keep with them. All students learn differently and need to experience a variety of things. I really like SDAIE, or sheltered English. It is an approach that provides students with extra support in language rather then throwing them into an all english class and watching them "sink" or "swim". This is extremely important. It is unfair to throw an ELL student into an all English classroom. English is one of the hardest languages to learn and placing them into a situation like them will only frustrate them and make it more difficult.

Chapter 5:Assessment

Assessment does have many meanings and each one is important. The chapter mentions that assessment should be child centered. This includes showing how the students have grown and progressed as English language learners. This is an important step. Teachers need to praise the students for their accomplishments. This will also help them to exceed in other areas as time progresses. I also feel that teachers should use a combination of formal and informal assessment in their classroom. An example of formal assessment is observations and an example of informal assessment is testing. You cannot base everything strictly on one of them, you need both. For example some students don't test very well but they excel in another area. I also agree with the idea of student assessment and parent involvement. It's important for students to help others and learn from others. Children also do better when their parents are involved in their schooling. I feel parents should have an open invitation to the classroom for conferences or to help out. I did my sophomore field at a school in Union in a first grade classroom. A parent volunteered her time once a week to come in and work with the children who were absent and behind in work so that they were able to catch up with their classmates. I thought that was a very useful strategy. Portfolios, student logs/journals, and tape recordings are also very useful assessment tools. They tools actually show growth and change over time that can be shown to the students as well as the parents. As teachers we are all working on putting together a portfolio ourselves so I'm sure that we have seen growth and change in our own work over time. I know that I have.