This week’s readings were very interesting to me because my minor in Elementary Education is TESOL and so they were especially applicable to me as a future teacher of ESL students. The first article written about how to assess English Language Learners (ELLs) in a mainstream classroom was very interesting because I had never read anything like this before. The article stated that, as a teacher, it is very important to understand where each student is coming from and what their background in literacy is because each student is different. I thought that one of the most interesting points that Lenski made was that even though ELLs are most time categorized into one homogeneous group, there are actually many sub-categories within these students, which makes them much more heterogeneous. I also enjoyed how the article gave suggestions for how teachers can effectively assess ESL students in a more authentic way. By using journals, portfolios, and self-assessments, a teacher is able accurately assess a student in a way that is much more well-rounded and shows true levels of ability. This will also be a more personable approach because it will help the teacher get to know her students better individually by these assignments.
The article by Maples was also very intriguing to me because I had never heard of a teacher assigning homework to the parents. This article made me think a lot about the situation with parents in my field placement classroom because many of the students have no support from their guardians and do not have role models. I was very shocked by the large amount of response that the teacher received! I could never imagine that much response happening in my classroom. I do think, though, that this technique is definitely something that I am going to use for my future classrooms because it really gives you as a teacher a good look into where these students are coming from.
In regards to codeswitching it is very intriguing to see what a teacher can do to promote this. In my TE 494 class we are also learning about this topic and it is very interesting to me to see how powerful a teacher's feedback can be to their students. On the other hand, we also learned from the reading how hurtful the teacher can be to the learner when he or she does NOT give any feedback to the learner. For example, if a teacher returns a paper to an ESL student with only a grade at the top without any comments, the learner is not going to learn from his or her mistakes. On the other hand, it the teacher provides multiple comments, the learner may use those constructively to better their papers in the future. When I become a teacher, I will try my best to give a lot of feedback to each of my students. In addition, if it is possible I will encourage my students to meet with me after each assessment so that we can discuss the mistakes that were made and make constructive improvements for the future.
After reading the syllabus for this course, my goals are 1.) to learn how to teach Language Arts in new, innovative ways to students and 2.) to learn how to accommodate all learning styles with Language Arts, especially those who tend to dislike the subject.
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I agree with alot of what you said. I liked how the articles pointed out how ELL are all different. I thought you made a good point that making assessment for these students very valuable also gives teachers one on one time to get to know the student. I think this is helpful to both the teacher and the student, but I wonder how the teacher can make enough time for special everything with an ELL when they have an entire class to insturct. Have you discussed how to do this in any of your other classes? Do you have any ideas? I understand that alot of modifications can be made to assingments quickly, but to complete some of these assessments in a meaningful way, one on one, the teacher simply has to make time for each ELL student. I was wondering if this is not only possible, but practical.
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