Technology
The one thing that always seems to surprise me in my practicum is that fact that although the students seem to be limited in their use of the English language, they are very confident in using technology. A major part of almost the students learning I observe is a program called APEX. This is an online "class" that they can take that quizzes them regarding certain topics. One of the girls in my first period was working on this so I observed her for a few minutes--Basically, the student reads text about a certain thing and then at the end of the reading takes a quiz on what she/he has just read. Seems simple right? The problem I have noticed with some of the students however, is the level of comprehension in what they are reading. When I looked at her test scores they were in the 50 percentile and a little higher even though she seemed to be whizzing through her assignments. Other students are very proficient when using the computer especially when it comes to using Microsoft Office & etc. My teacher has also taken to getting certain articles off of the internet in relation to subjects they are learning such as The Iditarod, and creating a sort of "fill-in-the-blank" worksheet where the student has to find the article online, and figure out what goes where. While there is still a large space that could be filled with technology in terms of classroom resources, the fact taht students can still use a computer/internet and find things on their own without instruction is fascinating to me.
Language Variation
From being in an ESL classroom, this obviously allows me to see a large range of different cultural backgrounds and the languages that follow. From what I have observed, there are three major types of ethnicity in my two periods: Mexican, Dominican, and Hmong. The two mexican students and the 5 or 6 Dominican students are still able to communicate with each other because they both speak Spanish although a different variation for each background, and I have also noticed that the Korean & Hmong students can do the same although my knowledge about their language variation is very limited (one Hmong student can even speak Thai). My teacher is Philipino but based on previous comments, she seems to be able to understand some Spanish and Hmong but has a better grasp on who exactly can communicate with who and applying this to her teaching. When a student needs help, she tries to find another student with a similiar background that can help and pairs them together; this is partly because some students still have trouble translating what they would like to ask/say into English. She finds that even though her students should be asking questions in English, if it is something relatively complex instead of wasting that student's time making them "spell it out" she would rather they get the information they need from someone who can translate; sometimes she even has a student translate to me and I will help them instead. But more than often than not, she will make a student figure out how to say what they want to say in English instead of that student taking the easy road and just having a peer translate for them, especially if it is a question directed at her & even more so if it is one of the rowdy Dominican boys!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Chatty Cathys
In one of the class periods of my practicum, it's ONLY talking. There is so much chatter sometimes that I can barely hear myself think and I know Ms. E cannot either because she actually voices this. However, with what exactly the students are talking about, I cannot tell you. The majority of the students in my second period are Dominican and therefore are constantly speaking "Spanglish". I do not understand much Spanish and neither does my practicum teacher so it is hard for both of us to keep the students a) focused on their assignment(s) and b) to address what they need to do for those assignments. Today in fact, she was so fed up with them speaking their native tongue that she simply instructed them not to speak it during the class period. It was English or nothing.
Another problem I have with almost all of my students is that they speak at an inaudible level when asking me a question. For some students in particular, I have to ask them to repeat the question up to three times on occasion. When students ask Ms. E questions, it is usually a question involving her repeating instructions that she had just stated regarding an assignment she would like done. I notice when she is attempting to assign them some type of work, no one is writing down the instructions; this makes me wonder why although I have not asked her yet. You can almost bet immediately after she says something, a student is going to ask her either what she meant by it or to repeat it in its entirety. This from what I have seen, has sort of "jaded" Ms. E from answering her students. She has spoke with me about this in short comments here and there, and I have basically gathered that after she tells them something she writes it down on the board so when they ask her a question about it , she can simply tell them to go find the information where she wrote it. Also, she said that a lot of the students need to be "babysat" and that they are capable of finding the answer to their question themselves so that is what she tells them--go find it on your own. If they really can't find the answer, she has taken to directing them to me or if I am not there or do not have the tools to help them, she will finally step in.
So far I have not seen a pattern of speech in relation to ethnicity although the Spanish-speaking boys seem to be a lot more outspoken (outgoing) than the girls. The two Samoan twins I have in both classes seem to be about the same and these are two students with whom I have a hard time hearing. One other student they sit with in my first period is Hmong and also speaks quietly if at all, to me while the two Hmong boys I have in my first period have no problem engaging in conversation when we are going over homework etc. The Spanish-speaking boys also have a problem overlapping each other and not respecting others' turns when speaking; this happens most frequently when someone is trying present. In their Alaska Studies class, they are working on a timeline of Alaska's history and each student must present a piece of the timeline with around four dates including pictures and information for each one. Today was their actual presentation and the boys were so rowdy that Ms. E had to separate them! She has mentioned that they get this way but so far I have not actually witnessed it until today and even at one point one of the boys said a rude comment to me. Ms. E's classroom has an overall "easy-going" atmosphere, so maybe this plays a role with the way some of the students lack respect for authoritative figures?
On a positive note, I got to review and make adjustments to James' research paper! He did an excellent job providing evidence for both the pros and cons of social networking ( he narrowed his topic) and even used quotes from his research of the topic in the appropriate spots which was somewhat surprising to me because I have seen English students who cannot manage this correctly. He still has trouble with his inflectional endings but we went over this again and I think he is starting to catch on because there were not as many to note in his paper as there was when he was writing the article response two weeks ago...
Another problem I have with almost all of my students is that they speak at an inaudible level when asking me a question. For some students in particular, I have to ask them to repeat the question up to three times on occasion. When students ask Ms. E questions, it is usually a question involving her repeating instructions that she had just stated regarding an assignment she would like done. I notice when she is attempting to assign them some type of work, no one is writing down the instructions; this makes me wonder why although I have not asked her yet. You can almost bet immediately after she says something, a student is going to ask her either what she meant by it or to repeat it in its entirety. This from what I have seen, has sort of "jaded" Ms. E from answering her students. She has spoke with me about this in short comments here and there, and I have basically gathered that after she tells them something she writes it down on the board so when they ask her a question about it , she can simply tell them to go find the information where she wrote it. Also, she said that a lot of the students need to be "babysat" and that they are capable of finding the answer to their question themselves so that is what she tells them--go find it on your own. If they really can't find the answer, she has taken to directing them to me or if I am not there or do not have the tools to help them, she will finally step in.
So far I have not seen a pattern of speech in relation to ethnicity although the Spanish-speaking boys seem to be a lot more outspoken (outgoing) than the girls. The two Samoan twins I have in both classes seem to be about the same and these are two students with whom I have a hard time hearing. One other student they sit with in my first period is Hmong and also speaks quietly if at all, to me while the two Hmong boys I have in my first period have no problem engaging in conversation when we are going over homework etc. The Spanish-speaking boys also have a problem overlapping each other and not respecting others' turns when speaking; this happens most frequently when someone is trying present. In their Alaska Studies class, they are working on a timeline of Alaska's history and each student must present a piece of the timeline with around four dates including pictures and information for each one. Today was their actual presentation and the boys were so rowdy that Ms. E had to separate them! She has mentioned that they get this way but so far I have not actually witnessed it until today and even at one point one of the boys said a rude comment to me. Ms. E's classroom has an overall "easy-going" atmosphere, so maybe this plays a role with the way some of the students lack respect for authoritative figures?
On a positive note, I got to review and make adjustments to James' research paper! He did an excellent job providing evidence for both the pros and cons of social networking ( he narrowed his topic) and even used quotes from his research of the topic in the appropriate spots which was somewhat surprising to me because I have seen English students who cannot manage this correctly. He still has trouble with his inflectional endings but we went over this again and I think he is starting to catch on because there were not as many to note in his paper as there was when he was writing the article response two weeks ago...
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
For the Survival of the Whole Community, You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do..
*Note: the title is a quote my teacher said to her students during AK Studies--each student is assigned to a "community" and they choose a type of Alaska Native to study in their group i.e. Tlingit or Athabaskan. Also, this blog will probably be a lot longer than usual due to the fact that I took notes in previous classes on students' writing & requirements regarding particular writing assignments.
One of the more frustrating things to deal with in my practicum is the lack of actual beginning-to-end teacher instruction. This is not to say that my teacher does not in fact teach, but rather does not have a set lesson plan with which she goes by. Also, the first period in which I "shadow" is a study hall for the students and not an actual class like say, Alaska Studies (the 2nd period in which I shadow). This is where the students work on different subjects ranging from History (World & American) to English and Mathematics. On the second/third day of my practicum, my teacher asked that I oversee some work that one of the Hmong students was doing--forming a topic that he wanted to research for his English class.
This student has been previously pointed out by my teacher as being extremely self-sufficient and self-motivated in the sense of accomplishing the task of having his homework finished using the full amount of time given in a class period. For this particular period, the student was given the assignment of finding a "controversial topic" and then forming questions particular to the topic and I'm assuming, writing an entire essay using the information they have gathered about the topic--My student chose violent video games and the affects they have on children and took the stance that violent games in a sense, influence children to become violent or more aggressive in the real world. While he was forming research questions about his topic I got a chance to look at the grading rubric for the essay and jotted down a few notes I found particularly interesting:
FORM
-Correct MLA Format
-5 or more pages, not including works cited page
-5 different sources
-Sources correctly introduced & cited correctly using MLA parenthetical citations
CONTENT
-Engaging introduction & "hook"
-Clearly stated overview
-Background information clearly conveyed
-Thorough discussion of pros & cons
-Direct quotes & paraphrases
-Uses transitions smoothly to connect paragraphs
-Final paragraph draws conclusions about topic analyzed
-Writing easy to follow & understand
After James was finished filling out the form he was required to finish before as a step prior to writing the essay, I observed another assignment he was working on for English. This time, he was required to read a news article and then write a brief synopsis of the article and also take a stance on whether he agreed with the author or not and why. The article he had to read dealt with comprehensive sex education and whether we should allow it in our schools. I personally, have done much research on this topic in my own experience of writing controversial essays so I was curious as to what James would say on the subject. He did an excellent job of taking what he read from the article and reproducing it in his own words, listing key points the author made. He also had a very well developed standpoint on the subject, agreeing with the author that students should be exposed to comprehensive sex education [I think school should have a class that educate about premarital sex. School should teach teenagers about the hardships they have to face and some inevitable consequences after getting pregnant] although there were little things I noticed within his writing.
While he did a good job as a whole, he tended to miss inflections such as in the sentence in italics above where he says educate instead educates. We went back and "walked" through his paper together, pointing out the different usage between the two words and how by missing something as silly as a little letter, you could change the entire meaning of a sentence.
In my second period, I worked with a particular student that I recently learned can speak little to no English at all--his name is Armand. Armand, from what I observed in previous classes relies heavily on the other Dominican students to communicate not only with the teacher but with other students that are not of his ethnicity (if he chooses to speak to them at all!) One of my tasks for the class was to take a worksheet and whiteout some interesting/important facts about the Iditarod and then copy it so it would appear as a "fill-in-the-blank". The students would then log onto the website where Ms. E found the article and fill in the missing word(s). Ms. E voiced some concern to me that she did not think Armand could do this on his own (and obviously some of his peers did not either as they continuously came over and gave him answers against mine and Ms. E's instructions). She asked that I oversee his progress but not straight out give him the answers, & I agreed. While it at first (based on what Ms. E told me)appeared that he did not understand English at all, Armand changed my initial opinion when he began reading the article out loud--he did understand. While he was slower than most of the other students and needed to use his finger to guide him through a sentence, Armand was identifying and pronouncing words well despite his thick accent, and even getting all of his answers on the worksheet correct with little interference from me. When he came to a word in which he could not pronounce, I would have him break the word into individual sounds and once he got those correctly, slowly begin putting them together into an entire word. Also he would sometimes lose his place as he was writing down the answer, so I had him go back to the beginning of the sentence/paragraph and see if he could recognize the same sentence he was reading on his paper with the one on the screen—this seemed to work best, and he managed to finish his worksheet in the time given by Mrs. E.
Slowly but surely, I feel like I am making progress with my students, bringing up my “classroom confidence” & what I wonderful feeling it is!
One of the more frustrating things to deal with in my practicum is the lack of actual beginning-to-end teacher instruction. This is not to say that my teacher does not in fact teach, but rather does not have a set lesson plan with which she goes by. Also, the first period in which I "shadow" is a study hall for the students and not an actual class like say, Alaska Studies (the 2nd period in which I shadow). This is where the students work on different subjects ranging from History (World & American) to English and Mathematics. On the second/third day of my practicum, my teacher asked that I oversee some work that one of the Hmong students was doing--forming a topic that he wanted to research for his English class.
This student has been previously pointed out by my teacher as being extremely self-sufficient and self-motivated in the sense of accomplishing the task of having his homework finished using the full amount of time given in a class period. For this particular period, the student was given the assignment of finding a "controversial topic" and then forming questions particular to the topic and I'm assuming, writing an entire essay using the information they have gathered about the topic--My student chose violent video games and the affects they have on children and took the stance that violent games in a sense, influence children to become violent or more aggressive in the real world. While he was forming research questions about his topic I got a chance to look at the grading rubric for the essay and jotted down a few notes I found particularly interesting:
FORM
-Correct MLA Format
-5 or more pages, not including works cited page
-5 different sources
-Sources correctly introduced & cited correctly using MLA parenthetical citations
CONTENT
-Engaging introduction & "hook"
-Clearly stated overview
-Background information clearly conveyed
-Thorough discussion of pros & cons
-Direct quotes & paraphrases
-Uses transitions smoothly to connect paragraphs
-Final paragraph draws conclusions about topic analyzed
-Writing easy to follow & understand
After James was finished filling out the form he was required to finish before as a step prior to writing the essay, I observed another assignment he was working on for English. This time, he was required to read a news article and then write a brief synopsis of the article and also take a stance on whether he agreed with the author or not and why. The article he had to read dealt with comprehensive sex education and whether we should allow it in our schools. I personally, have done much research on this topic in my own experience of writing controversial essays so I was curious as to what James would say on the subject. He did an excellent job of taking what he read from the article and reproducing it in his own words, listing key points the author made. He also had a very well developed standpoint on the subject, agreeing with the author that students should be exposed to comprehensive sex education [I think school should have a class that educate about premarital sex. School should teach teenagers about the hardships they have to face and some inevitable consequences after getting pregnant] although there were little things I noticed within his writing.
While he did a good job as a whole, he tended to miss inflections such as in the sentence in italics above where he says educate instead educates. We went back and "walked" through his paper together, pointing out the different usage between the two words and how by missing something as silly as a little letter, you could change the entire meaning of a sentence.
In my second period, I worked with a particular student that I recently learned can speak little to no English at all--his name is Armand. Armand, from what I observed in previous classes relies heavily on the other Dominican students to communicate not only with the teacher but with other students that are not of his ethnicity (if he chooses to speak to them at all!) One of my tasks for the class was to take a worksheet and whiteout some interesting/important facts about the Iditarod and then copy it so it would appear as a "fill-in-the-blank". The students would then log onto the website where Ms. E found the article and fill in the missing word(s). Ms. E voiced some concern to me that she did not think Armand could do this on his own (and obviously some of his peers did not either as they continuously came over and gave him answers against mine and Ms. E's instructions). She asked that I oversee his progress but not straight out give him the answers, & I agreed. While it at first (based on what Ms. E told me)appeared that he did not understand English at all, Armand changed my initial opinion when he began reading the article out loud--he did understand. While he was slower than most of the other students and needed to use his finger to guide him through a sentence, Armand was identifying and pronouncing words well despite his thick accent, and even getting all of his answers on the worksheet correct with little interference from me. When he came to a word in which he could not pronounce, I would have him break the word into individual sounds and once he got those correctly, slowly begin putting them together into an entire word. Also he would sometimes lose his place as he was writing down the answer, so I had him go back to the beginning of the sentence/paragraph and see if he could recognize the same sentence he was reading on his paper with the one on the screen—this seemed to work best, and he managed to finish his worksheet in the time given by Mrs. E.
Slowly but surely, I feel like I am making progress with my students, bringing up my “classroom confidence” & what I wonderful feeling it is!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Practicum Day One
My first day at my practicum was better than I initially expected. I woke up extremely early in order to have plenty of time to dress in "appropriate attire" and of course, have my morning coffee before driving down the road to EHS. Once getting there, I was pushed through the doors by loads of students and somehow managed to walk into the doors leading straight to the office. Not knowing exactly what I was doing, I asked the attendant where and what I should do in order to make it to my class on time. Once signing in at the front desk, I maneuver my way through crowds of hormones to my newfound class.
I had no idea what to expect of my students and shadow-teacher but after meeting everyone I slowly began to relax! My shadow teacher is nothing short of the meaning "outgoing"--immediately going from introducing me to the students to having me take on my first one-on-one with one of the students she stressed having the most problems with.
This student is not in any way a problem child but just has not seemed to grow into her own yet. She speaks extremely quietly, reminding me of myself when I was younger (not high school age but still...) and had problems speaking up which I still do to this day when I am nervous. She also had problems communicating with me and myself could be to blame for this I was so nervous! For the rest of the class period we went over her history homework as I slowly worked through the questions with her that she was assigned to answer for each chapter and I believe I made some progress with her. When we first began she did not seem to quite understand her task and would simply answer the questions by copying different information from the book, as her answer to the question. When I explained that she needed to take the information and put it into her own words, as the second question came around, she said she understood me but still continued to copy. By the third question, she had managed to begin taking the information and translating it into her own words but the sentences were not making any sense grammatically. So, we began going back and I explained (or tried to!) to her the way some words should flow together and although it seemed simple to me, it did not appear simple to her. I do not know if this was due to having a stranger come in and try to teach her something she probably had not interest in so I am hoping that by the next time round we will have made even further progress.
Since this is an English as a Second Language class, the teacher does not have a set curriculum on what she teaches at least in the period that I am shadowing, so I was not able to look at any set curriculum for the class. However, when talking to my teacher we decided that I should stay for another period which is Alaska Studies in order for me to see more of a normal classroom setting. With that said, the classroom I work in is FULL of information about history. My teacher stressed that she had not taught anything regarding Alaska studies prior to this addition to the HS requirements, so she had tons and tons of books and pictures and different grammatical conjucations (English to Native words) relating to the history/culture of all sorts of ethnicities. I was amazed to see how some of the students adapted very well to English especially two students in particular whom were from an Asian background. Both of the students were in the study hall class for math and one of them at the time of my practicum was signing up for his FAFSA. I know how hard it was for me to fill out my FAFSA alone, so it was interesting to see another especially one from a different cultural background to go through the same experience.
I hope that during this next practicum I really get to see some teacher-student interaction!!
I had no idea what to expect of my students and shadow-teacher but after meeting everyone I slowly began to relax! My shadow teacher is nothing short of the meaning "outgoing"--immediately going from introducing me to the students to having me take on my first one-on-one with one of the students she stressed having the most problems with.
This student is not in any way a problem child but just has not seemed to grow into her own yet. She speaks extremely quietly, reminding me of myself when I was younger (not high school age but still...) and had problems speaking up which I still do to this day when I am nervous. She also had problems communicating with me and myself could be to blame for this I was so nervous! For the rest of the class period we went over her history homework as I slowly worked through the questions with her that she was assigned to answer for each chapter and I believe I made some progress with her. When we first began she did not seem to quite understand her task and would simply answer the questions by copying different information from the book, as her answer to the question. When I explained that she needed to take the information and put it into her own words, as the second question came around, she said she understood me but still continued to copy. By the third question, she had managed to begin taking the information and translating it into her own words but the sentences were not making any sense grammatically. So, we began going back and I explained (or tried to!) to her the way some words should flow together and although it seemed simple to me, it did not appear simple to her. I do not know if this was due to having a stranger come in and try to teach her something she probably had not interest in so I am hoping that by the next time round we will have made even further progress.
Since this is an English as a Second Language class, the teacher does not have a set curriculum on what she teaches at least in the period that I am shadowing, so I was not able to look at any set curriculum for the class. However, when talking to my teacher we decided that I should stay for another period which is Alaska Studies in order for me to see more of a normal classroom setting. With that said, the classroom I work in is FULL of information about history. My teacher stressed that she had not taught anything regarding Alaska studies prior to this addition to the HS requirements, so she had tons and tons of books and pictures and different grammatical conjucations (English to Native words) relating to the history/culture of all sorts of ethnicities. I was amazed to see how some of the students adapted very well to English especially two students in particular whom were from an Asian background. Both of the students were in the study hall class for math and one of them at the time of my practicum was signing up for his FAFSA. I know how hard it was for me to fill out my FAFSA alone, so it was interesting to see another especially one from a different cultural background to go through the same experience.
I hope that during this next practicum I really get to see some teacher-student interaction!!
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