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

ESL Observation in the Field #1 SPSE 6712

Observation #1

Date: September  27, 2011

Process:  For this observation, I chose to observe my mentor’s ESL class of 8 7^th grade students.  I already knew all of the students because they are students that were in my class last year.  On this day, Mrs. B. chose to use an activity called “Funglish” to have the students practice using descriptive adjectives.  They were chosen by pairs to go up and choose the adjectives while the rest of the class guessed.  The students would have to choose the appropriate adjectives from the ones that were present to isolate what the actual person, place or thing was.  There are three categories in which they can place the adjectives, Definitely, Sort of, and Not at all.  The pair may only answer yes or no to the students’ guesses. 

Notetaking:	Notemaking:
The students are slow to start the game.  A.N. says, “We are trying to organize the words.” The teacher helps the first pair of students by giving them some hints.	There is no way to organize the adjectives. I wonder what the student meant to say?  Perhaps she wanted to review them?
“This is hard,” One student says.  The audience seems a little impatient.	Do they fully understand the way to play the game?
A male student places the word “old” in the “definitely” section. The boy says, “This is not as easy as I thought it would be.”	The word they are trying to guess is “doctor.” It’s funny that they chose old first.
His partner doesn’t talk much. She motions for the boy to come over and points to a word without really saying anything, and the boy puts the word “American” under the “sort of” section.	The Mexican students associate doctors with Americans. This could be stereotyping.
Several students guess, “Michael Jackson” or “Obama?” The boy puts up the adjectives “sick” under “not at all,” and puts rich under “definitely”	The students are unfamiliar with very many influential people in society.
The teacher asks where they are going with this and asks if they remember their word.  The boy acts like he forgot for a while.	The teacher was smart to take away the words “American, male, and old,” to help the students narrow it down.
The girl adds “alive” and the boy adds “male” to the “definitely” section. Then “dead” and “young got added to the “not at all” section.	Funny that the students associate “male” with “doctor.” It’s another stereotype.
The students asked, “a football player,” “a soccer player?”	Everyone knows that athletes get paid a lot of money.
The Japanese boy doesn’t speak at all.  He often laughs shyly at the animated other students in the class.  He appears to be enjoying the show.	The Japanese boy doesn’t understand most of the adjectives on the board.  He is just trying to grasp BICS and is comfortable with his peers.
The students become frustrated and give up after not getting it.  The teacher says to the pair, “place these two in the “definitely” section	The students seem rejuvenated at the sudden re-guidance from the teacher.
A student guesses” teacher” and one guesses, “doctor.” One girl says, “This is fun!”	The kids enjoyed interacting with each other for the most part.

Reflection:   I feel like the kids might have gotten into the game a little more if the teacher had spent a little time beforehand, introducing the words and maybe even spent a few days of revisiting them before playing the game.  Some words like “charming” and “intriguing” needed extra introducing.  I was surprised that the audience students didn’t ask more questions but the students were wholly subdued in this environment in a way completely different than the way they acted in my room last year.   The most uncanny part of the observation is how the partners decided to describe the “doctor” with stereotypes that were almost culturally biased.  As teachers busy teaching a class, sometimes it is harder to pick up on cultural nuances or stereotypes being placed on another.  This observation opened my “ethnographic eyes” to that aspect, to begin with.

Introduction to Fieldwork in ESL SPSE 6712

Welcome to my blog. Check out some of my older posts too. My name is Erin Cathey and I currently teach ESL at Harris Middle School in rural Shelbyville, Tennessee in the heart of Bedford County. I received a BA in Spanish in 2000 from Appalachian State University with an 18 hour minor in ESL certification and a 2nd minor in Latin American studies.  I am fluent in Spanish.  I have been teaching ESL on and off for the past 10 years but I am finally fulfilling the requirements for my teaching certfication this semester with this class.   However, beyond that minor detail, hee hee,  I am thrilled about the content of this class and look forward to using this powerful technology tool as a journal for my observations and experiences in working with ESL children.

Blog #3 My overall reflections on YOED 6020, Evaluating Literature for ELLs and Promoting Literacy in the ESL Classroom

YOED 6020 has been an invaluable class in helping re-ignite the passion I have for teaching English as a second language.  I first was uneasy about the wikispace assignment but now feel empowered at being able to create and sustain such an amazing instrument.  Not to mention, I will always have a portfolio of research and practices that I have studied as well as a point of reference to access resources for each concept. The content has also been stimulating and effective in helping me learn how to choose appropriate literature for use in ESL, which is something I had zero experience in doing before.  I also learned some great new strategies for differentiating instruction and scaffolding in my classes. Here are my thoughts on evaluating materials for instruction and promoting literacy in second language learners.

1. What important factors do you feel are needed when selecting and evaluating ESL materials?

        There are several important factors to consider when choosing ESL materials. The first is whether the materials offer opportunities for building metacognitive skills such as using graphic organizers to build upon previous knowledge or skills and extending meaningful connections to the content (Craig, 2010).  Another necessary factor to consider is choosing materials whose instruction can be adapted for differentiated audiences through multiple, varied, holistic strategies. As stated in Boyle & Peregoy, “Holistic strategies are especially important for English language learners because they provide rich and meaningful print experiences, with comprehension scaffolded by the teacher or other students” (Boyle, Peregoy, 2008, p. 176). Additionally, it is important that the lesson can be used to reinforce Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) as well as Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP).  The materials need to be age appropriate for the targeted audience as well as on the correct level of English proficiency.  Lastly, a teacher should choose materials with meaningful content that lend themselves to increased critical thinking and analytical cognition skills.

2. What are your thoughts regarding promoting literacy in second language learners?

        As evidenced on our planet, there are many cultures that function without literacy skills. The need for literacy has not been explained or become apparent for many of these cultures and therefore it is seen as unnecessary. Many second language learners that come to the United States have had some sort of education in their first language and therefore understand the need for literacy in the new language.  For students coming from illiterate backgrounds, it may be necessary to increase the need for functional literacy in the classroom so that students will be motivated to want to learn (Boyle, Peregoy, 2008, p.161). I feel that the best way to promote literacy skills in second language learners is by using many different types of metacognitive strategies and scaffolds to support the learner’s needs in a variety of functional, literacy rich opportunities, as suggested by Boyle and Peregoy (p. 177). Activities that require a student to utilize and observe the functionality of literacy as well as be connected through meaningful experiences from the content are the most effective ways of teaching literacy to second language learners.

References:

Craig, D. V. (2010). Evaluating materials for esl 
     instructional use rubric. Retrieved from: 
     https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer
     /main_frame.d2l?ou=1930861&tId=18330556.

Boyle, O. F., Peregoy, S. F. (2008). Reading, writing
     and learning in esl. (5 ed.). Boston, MA:  Pearson.

Blog # 2 ESL Reading, Writing, and Learning Methods

      In YOED 6020, we have covered the principles of second language acquisition as well as instructional designs for English language learners.  I learned many different strategies for specially designing academic instruction to individual learners needs, use content-based instruction, and how to apply scaffolding techniques in a variety of ways during a lesson to help support the learner. The process of oral language development has also been an interesting topic.  As an ESL teacher, I always have struggled with an appropriate way to assess students’ oral language.  I will probably use the (OLD) Oral Language Development Rubric to help me assess oral language in the future. More recently, I have been introduced to various ways to promote literacy in ESL students.  For ESL students learning to read, I like the use of literacy centers.  Different centers can represent different familiar things in a child’s life such as the grocery store, parks, and the kitchen and can be filed with literature all about the content area Boyle, Peregoy, 2008, p.177). I feel that this would be a great way to incorporate functional literacy in the classroom. In helping to build Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), I would use content related books that are rich in related vocabulary and have the students present the words in various creative ways, such as use of graphic organizers, word walls, illustrations, and role playing.  My favorite strategy is the holistic approach.  I want to make the content as accessible to all my students as possible and through use of holistic teaching methods, I feel I can reach them all.

Reference:

Boyle, O. F., Peregoy, S. F. (2008). Reading, writing and learning

     in esl. (5 ed.). Boston, MA:  Pearson.

It's Not Whole Language

So I did a little research since my last post and learned that "whole language" approach is considerable similar to content-based instruction. I tried comparing content-based methods with a traditional language approach but that led me to several explanations of what traditional methods were.  I discovered that some of the old die-hard traditional teaching methods included the grammar translation approach, the audio-lingual method, and the direct approach as well as use of phonemic drills and rote memorization.  I did not ever find out exactly what one would define the approach that uses all these strategies if it isn't called the traditional approach to teaching a second or foreign language.  For all intents and purposes, I still would like to argue that content-based or thematic instruction is more effective to teach English language learners that the traditional methods as evidenced by the ELSA/TCAP standardized test. It only makes sense to me that we should be teaching meaningful material that is aligned with the state standards. Just a thought.