Reflective Blog # 6             SPSE 6712

December 2, 2011

Personal Reflection of My Journey

Field work and Applied Research in ESL has been a wonderful course experience for me.  As a practicing ESL teacher, I really enjoyed conducting fieldwork in my own class as well as in the other ESL class with former students.  I really got to know the students that much better from the experience.  My favorite part of the coursework was conducting the action research project to troubleshoot common issues in second language acquisition and the ESL classroom.  I also really enjoyed reading about “the second classroom” and how important it is to build real relationships with your students.  I feel that this has been an extremely valuable course in helping me to learn how to assess my students in a different sort of way but a very necessary way.  I have had many wonderful experiences working with ESL students over the last 10 years on and off but I wish I had the knowledge that I gained from this course before.  I often think back on previous experiences while reflecting on coursework and think how I might have applied the strategies to my former students.  This was the last class that I needed to take to acquire teaching licensure.  I highly recommend teachers who are interested in teaching ESL to pursue the add-on license or the M.Ed. in ESL at MTSU to be well prepared for working with English Language Learners.  I would tell the teacher who is looking for recognition not to go into ESL because you don’t often get the full respect from other teachers and administrators.  But if you love the diversity of cultures and are compassionate about helping students that struggle to achieve and overcome their language gap, then ESL is for you.

Blog Entry # 5                  SPSE 6712

Implementation Of Literature Circles

1.  What are your overall impressions of implementation?

          My students really enjoyed the book review activity.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them that focused before.  The literature circles had some definitely positive aspects of use.  The graphic organizers and reinforced peer discussion are great tools to enhance comprehension and fluency.  I liked watching all of the students assume their roles in the groups as well.

2.  How did students react to the literature?

          The book that was decided upon turned out to be rather hokey but nonetheless, the students enjoyed learning how to work cooperatively in group roles.  Their comprehension of the story was substantially increased through the activity.

3.  How did students react to discussing the selected texts?

          The students did have some difficulties staying focused at times, even with the team leader in place.  There were tons of innuendos and plays on words getting thrown around in between discussions in Spanish, but then again, this group of students is a really funny group and could practically be comedians at times.

4.  How appropriate is the Literature Circle Technique for second language learners?

          The literature circles technique is ideal for second language learners because it offers lots of opportunities to enhance comprehension of a text.  It provided fun graphic organizers for the kids to use and let the students dictate their own lesson and learning.  The students liked having group roles and even though they joked around a lot at times, they took their roles seriously and completed their tasks effectively and efficiently most of the time.  The ELL needs the kind of extra support that a group setting such as those used in literature circles has to offer to gain fluency in reading.

5. What changes would you make if you were to repeat this?

          The obvious change for me would have been the book.  I would have liked to have used a book with multiple themes and relevant experiences that the students could have enjoyed talking about using prior knowledge.  I thought the giving the students the opportunity to choose their group book would make the experience more fun for them and they might take ownership in that they helped choose the book.  Other than that, I think it would get smoother for the students once they really got used to the routines of the group roles.

6.  What suggestions do you have for other ESL professionals considering implementing

literature circles?

          I highly recommend that ESL teachers try to use age appropriate books in literature circles that the students can relate to such as “The Circuit,” by Francisco Jimenez for say, a group of middle school Hispanic ESL students.  The best kinds of books are the ones that offer plenty of opportunities to reflect upon characters’ experiences, such as “The House on Mango Street,” by Sandra Cisneros, for a group of high school ESL students.  This sort of group works especially well for students of varying proficiency levels because it keeps every student involved, participating, and comprehending.

Reflective Fieldnote Blog Entry #4

        My overall impressions of my observations of the Japanese student were extremely insightful as to what his needs are.  Aside from the obvious need for him to gain more proficiency in English, he also has emotional needs that must to be met.  The results of the field work showed me that I needed to understand the concept of wait time, one I honestly hadn’t given much thought to in the past.  I was quite impressed with what the student was able to produce after being given adequate time to construct responses in English.  Another thing that I learned was how important it is for students to have extra support and attention at times, so they do not fall into isolation.  This is especially important if there are no other students or only one or two other students in the school that speak the same language.  Case studies can improve classroom practices greatly by presenting questions from which to draw research from.  These studies are formal assessments that improve educational practices on the whole and are necessary for teachers to know how to better serve their students.  The ethnographic narrative served to me to be a valuable tool to help build a relationship with the student.   He seemed to thoroughly enjoy being asked questions and was happy to receive the attention.  I feel that this information has already been helpful in assisting other teachers because I had a chance to collaborate with a few of his other teachers and share results with them.  They in turn, came back and shared experiences that they had with the student as well.  Together we have come up with a few ideas for strategies that will make lesson content easier for the student to grasp. Inclusion has also helped me understand how ESL students function in the mainstream classrooms.  By the time next year comes around, I should be able to tell his teachers exactly what his strengths and weaknesses are and the best practices with which to assist him.

"The Second Classroom"

I have recently been conducting action research about second language learners in different classroom environments and have made many interesting observations.  Last week I felt a little overloaded with work at the school and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was happening at first.  I realized that as a supplementary teacher or support teacher that I connect with almost every teacher in the school at some point or another because many of them teach my students.  In addition to trying to find time to collaborate with other teachers, I have to function in two different types of classrooms.  Gerald Campano describes this in his book, “Immigrant Students and Literacy,” as “the second classroom” (2007). The first one is where we function as the instructors of the academic curriculum and it is the “second classroom during the margins and in between periods of the day that builds curricula around the students’ identities” (2007).  The first classroom is the state mandated classroom in which we are required to teach “basal instruction and test preparation” but the second classroom is more “organic” and is created by students’ “interests, desires, forms of cultural expression, and stories” (Campano, 2007).  This time is an “invisible and uncompensated” time period.  This period is also extremely critical as it is the time that teachers are able to build relationships with the students and nurture them.  It is extremely important that a student can bring their own rich cultural experiences to this space.  Campano explains that “the buried histories that our narratives materialize, the sense of community that we establish through memory, the relationships we nurture and sustain, and the children’s own life experiences would all become important intellectual and academic resources” (2007).  In an ideal classroom, students would have a hand in their own instruction and share their own narratives as a way to build upon their own life experiences.  The part that saddens me most is that I am limited by how I can influence the experiences that the students have outside of school.  It is a rather hopeless feeling at times when all you can do is lend an ear and schedules limit your availability for the student that needs nurturing.  But I know that this second classroom is really underlying and at the heart of all first classrooms.  It all may be a little overwhelming at times but students really do need teachers to offer that minute, their ear, and some space so that their emotional needs are met too.

Presented by:  Erin Cathey

Reference:

Campano, G. (2007). Immigrant students and literacy. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Reflective Fieldnote Blog # 3    SPSE 6712

October 27, 2011

      Section 1: Thoughts about Action Research as a Tool to Improve Practice

   Action research is a “reflective process that allows for inquiry and discussion” (Ferrance, 2000).  It is a great way to get an even closer look behind the scenes at what is really happening in the classroom.  Action research is a systematic process where one should study and plan, take action, collect and analyze, and reflect (Riel, 2010). This process should repeated several times for best results. I really enjoyed the collaborative aspect of the action research process, as the teacher whose class I was observing was able to give me a different reflective analysis of what was going on than I came up with originally. In the end though, both of our speculations were proven incorrect in some cases and reconfirmed in other cases through the student interview process. I found the entire process amazingly helpful as a step by step approach to dissecting future issues that may arise in the ESL classroom or any classroom for that matter.

      Section 2: Ideas Generated as a Result of My Project

   The best part about the Action Research project was that it really got me thinking about possible issues to further explore in upcoming research.  I am fascinated by the environmental, socio-cultural, and self-perceptions related problems that surround ELLs as they often face multiple hardships or may have had some pretty shocking experiences in their lives.  It would be interesting to look at student attitudes caused by resentment, necessity, failure, or peer attitudes. The project made me want to look more closely at some of the social affective filters that are heightened in some students and how to create the right environment and relationship with those students to help them lower these filters. I would love to find a way to measure the power of encouragement and confidence building amongst students in relation to their academic progress.  Finally, I thought that a study that could determine which strategies can be used to successfully cope with language anxiety, might be a good research question to later expand upon.

      Section 3: Suggestions for Other ESL Professionals Based on My Findings

   ESL teachers that are having a difficult time getting students to behave need to try to build a relationship with their students to better understand what factors are affecting them or causing anxiety.  This genuine trust allows students to lower their affective filters and relax more in your classroom. Always give positive feedback and encouragement to a student to build confidence, Make corrections or suggestions for improvement with a student when working individually with him or her, not in front of the whole class.  If a student in the classroom has a bad attitude, move him or her out of the limelight and to the back of the room.  Change seating arrangements often for different working tasks. Find out what kinds of learning styles your students have and try to incorporate strategies that target their learning styles for improved performance. Have students work in groups or in pairs to get them communicating in English. All of these proved to be great strategies through my action research project.

References:

Ferrance, E. (2000). Action research. Retrieved from:

     http://www.lab.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf.

Riel, M. (2010). Understanding action research. Retrieved from:

     http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/define.html.

Observation #2 : Problems That May Arise In The ESL Classroom

October 4, 2011                                                                                                                      SPSE 6712

For this observation, I chose to observe the same 7^th grade class that is taught by my mentor, the other ESL teacher during my planning.  The 8 students are all students that were in my class last year so I know them all very well.

Section 1: Teaching Issues

                The lesson was well planned and involved a reflection of the pre-reading activity that was conducted the previous day.  The teacher engaged the students into a discussion comparing three bubble maps that had been filled out by an 8^th grade class, a 6^th grade class, and their own class.  Unfortunately, many of the students are resistant to speaking aloud in the class.  There is also a big difference in the proficiency levels of the students represented in the class.  These same students wouldn’t stop speaking in my class last year.  Maybe, the teacher has not built a deep enough relationship with the students yet.  The questions she posed seemed simple enough; “What do you see that is the same as yours?” “What things do you see that are different?”  One boy says, “I need glasses.”  (I sent a letter home to his parents about this last year.) The grouping of the desks may have been an issue this time.  The desks were arranged into a semi-circle with the teacher in the middle.  All the students could see each other’s’ faces.  One girl kept looking totally disinterested and would make dramatically deep sighs of disgust and roll her eyes.  Many of the other students would look often to her for approval to speak.  The others would look at her with a blank look. One girl, who e=was absent the day before, was pointing out the differences and was the only one who would speak.  I recommended to the teacher to rearrange the desks the way she had them the day before for the next lesson into a staggered arrangement and put the bad attitude girl at the back so the other students couldn’t see her face as easily. I came back and observed her class the next day and it worked.  The other students participated because they couldn’t look to her for disapproval.  I gave the girl in the back individual attention and assistance with the lesson the next day and she was happier.

Section 2: Second Language Acquisition

                The teacher’s use of the bubble map graphic organizer was a huge help to the students in simplifying the concepts of comparing and contrasting, especially to the Japanese boy, who has only been here one year and is still practically non-English speaking.  Without the native language words, it is hard to describe abstract concepts such as comparing and contrasting but the graphic organizers made those more comprehensible concepts for the non-proficient students.  The teacher chose to switch to a different activity after getting a little frustrated at the  students lack of participation.  The new activity was one where the students would have to get to know each other better by asking questions to each other in small groups to find out what each other’s’ bedrooms looked like.  The small groups worked better because the students were less shy in speaking to each other.   The teacher helped the Japanese boy form sentences with his broken English to encourage second language acquisition.  She also modeled correct structure and pronunciation with him.  The best strategies implemented in the lesson to encourage second language acquisition were that the teacher allowed extra time for the students to form their answers, she modeled the directions and she had the students read the directions aloud as well.  All of these strategies helped improve second language acquisition.

Section 3: Ethnographic Perspective

                The information that the teacher needs to meet the needs of these learners is to gain their trust.  Once she is able to do that, I’m sure they will talk non-stop in her class and open up as well.  The pre reading activity focused on a story that is about a Hispanic girl and the discussion of comparing and contrasting the different grade levels concerns turned to a question of how these concerns might have been different in their own countries.  The only concern that differed from the American perspective in this class was the concern from 2 Mexican students over recent gang activity that had taken place in their homeland.   This could be a huge step toward the students opening up in an effort to build a relationship with the teacher and the rest of the class.

MTSU Honor Statement

This assignment/assessment was solely written by me.  In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use.  I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.

Signed:   Erin B. Cathey