Monitoring teaching acts

        The last chapter for the Kuma book clearly stated what to do when observing a classroom.  There are three very important stakeholders to consider when observing a classroom: observer, teacher, and learner.  The idea of this chapter was how to create your own personal theory and put it to practice and then self-observe, self-analyze, and self-evaluate your teaching act/theory.  Although I may have a teaching philosophy as a pre-service teacher, I do not know if that will work in my classroom because I have yet to have my own classroom.  When I do, it is important to take the M & M observational scheme into consideration.
        The M & M observational scheme consist of a three-stage activity: preservation, in which the observer and the teacher consult with each other regarding the aims, objectives, and activities of the class to be monitored; observation itself; and post observation, in which the observer and the teacher select a few episodes for a detailed treatment, analyze classroom input and interaction, interpret their analysis, derive pedagogic implications, and put all this knowledge together to develop a theory of practice.  This observational scheme is very detailed and takes a lot of time, but I am so happy that I have this to refer to when I actually am in the classroom because it will definitely help my teaching decisions.

Ensuring Social Relevance

        As I was reading through the microstrategies that Kuma provides at the end of each chapter, I came upon one that made me laugh uncontrollably.  A Hispanic student had just arrived to the US and went to go get a coca cola from the vending machine.  When he put 10 cents in to the machine which read, "D-I-M-E", he thought it said, "Dime" which translates "tell me."  He went up to the vending machine and said, "Una coca cola por favor" which means, "A coca cola please."  This is an example of linguistic/cultural misunderstanding.  Although these misunderstandings may be very comical, sometimes it may not be the case.  Therefore, it is very important as a prospective teacher to ensure social relevance in to my classroom.

        Lisa Delpit (1990, p.53) explains, "It is the responsibility of teachers to recognize that the linguistic form a student brings to school is intimately connected with loved ones, community, and personal identity.  To suggest that this form is 'wrong' or, ever worse, ignorant, is to suggest that something is wrong with the student and his or her family."  This quote really portrays a common misconception I have at times.  For example, a few days ago I was watching MTV and the host was using African American Vernacular and I thought, "Why is she not code switching?  She is on live television."  In other words, I basically said, "She is wrong for not code switching because she is on live television when she should be code switching to standard American English."  Chapter 11 reassured me that in some cases, it is not necessary to code switch to standard American English.  In all, it is important to be aware of ALL my students' backgrounds and integrate their culture in to my lessons to ensure social relevance.  Some ways I can do this is by targeting culture materials that use the culture of a country where English is spoken as a first language; source culture materials that draw on learners' own culture as content; and integrate target culture materials that use a variety of cultures in English an non-English-speaking countries around the world.

Update on Final Project

        After writing my observation analysis on the classes I attended at the ELI, I was definitely ready for our first workshop.  Stephanie and I completed our first workshop November 12 at 12PM at the ELI.  We had about 10 students who joined us that afternoon.  We first explained who we were and what we wanted to gain out of these workshops.  They all seemed pretty intrigued and were excited to start.

        To begin, we played an ice-breaker game to get to know each other better and Stephanie wrote on the board, "1. Name, 2. Where you are from, and 3. Something interesting about you" so the students could refer back to the questions if they forgot.  We found out that one  student was from Saudi Arabia, one from India,  one from Venezuela, and the rest were from South Korea.   After the game, we provided the students with various types of broadcasting roles through video clips and asked the students what they thought was similar or different from their country.  To my surprise, much of the broadcasting roles were very similar to those of the students.  This made it a lot easier when Stephanie and I went through the characteristics of each role.

        Towards the end of the workshop, Stephanie and I asked the students to pick their role for the upcoming script.  After that, we asked the students to bring back an article or two of current events that they would like to focus on for their script for the second workshop.  All in all, I believe the first workshop went smoothly and I am very excited for the next workshop, this Friday, November 19.

Chapter 10; Integrating Language Skills

        In Kuma's book, Chapter 10 focuses on integrating language skills.  He explains, "Integrated activities are all relevant for learners of different levels of proficiency, provided the degree of conceptual, communicative, and linguistic challenge is monitored and maintained."  Students in a well integrated activity should brainstorm, using ample resources, try to understand the teacher's directions and seek clarifications.
        Moreover,  it is very important for English Language learners to understand their language objectives for every activity because I believe, that is the main way of integrating language skills.  Every activity should be designed to meet the four domains of language and at the same time integrating social relevance.  If students do not see any importance of learning the material, they will not want to learn it.  It is important that every activity to be authentic so the learners can compare it to their lives, keeping in mind the integration of language skills.

"Waiting for Superman"

According to Ira Shor's article, "NOT Waiting for Superman", “Waiting for Superman” was a painful movie to watch for public school advocates.” As a pre-service teacher who will be working in the Chicago public schools next year, I definitely concur with Ira Shor's statement.  I found it very demonizing to me because I am an advocate for public schools.  It was as if the movie was indirectly saying, “Screw public schools because they are getting no where, so send your kids to charter schools, where they will be mentally abused by the lottery draw.  But, if they do get in, they will eventually have a high profile job; The American way of life.”  I understand that the statement I made was very harsh, but I feel that was the way the movie was portraying itself to its viewers.

Moreover,  I felt that a lot of things were missing in the movie but the one that stood out to me the most was how teaching styles are better in charter schools than they are in public schools.  No where in the movie were there interviews, or clips of teaching styles in charter schools, or public schools.  My question is, how are students performing better in charter schools than the students in public schools?  Did Geoffrey Canada ever take into consideration that many charter schools do not accept English language learners and students with disabilities, whereas public schools accept everyone?  Maybe that is the reason why public schools are not doing well as a school because English language learners and students with disabilities may not being doing that well on standardized tests, therefore on average, the public schools outcome looks bad.  On the other hand, where charter schools get to pick and choose between students, most likely, the high performing students, the charter schools outcome looks great.  I do not believe this is fair.

I believe that the movie should have taken a more approachable way of promoting good quality education.  Since the public schools statistics are not showing improvement, I believe Geoffrey Canada should have taken that into consideration and attacked the problem.  Instead, he said something along the lines of we have already tried with public schools through the law, and nothing has changed.  If nothing has changed with the law, then find another way to improve public schools. 

         In conclusion, I do not believe turning to charter schools is the way to go.  There are so many students, taking our growing student population into consideration, that we, public school advocates, should be thankful for the teacher unions funding professional development for public school teachers, and not bashing them, as was seen in the movie.  We should also find ways to improve public school education, rather than running away from it and turning to charter schools.  All in all, I am happy with the outcome of charter schools, but I not happy how this movie turned out; Advocating charter schools as the right way to get an education and to be successful in the United States.

"Get Up, Get Out, and Get Over It"

 Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the poetry slam so I took some time on youtube.com to    find one meaningful poet that stuck out to me.  It is a two minute youtube clip and it is found at :

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

        Cellise Craig, is an urban poet, and expresses her poetry through rap. I absolutely loved this clip because her take on poetry is through rap, and slowly but surely, rap poetry is becoming so popular, especially in the music of the "Rap Game."  A lot of people think of "Rap" as the stereotypical, swearing rhymes.  But, it is not always the case, such as the case of Cellise Craig.  Cellise explains that she lives freely through flowing (which means rapping).  She explains that she writes her sad feelings with her "pad and pen" when kids tease her in class.    She also makes the statement, "Is it the fact that I am gay why things are never OK?"  She then states, "When I wished I was dead, I made a change when my friend said you gotta get up, get out, and get over it."  Another thing that really hit home was, "'I wanna leave and forget it but then I'll be weak and I don't want major issues of my past to repeat.'  'So my friend said, you gotta get up, get out, and get over it.'"
        This poem is focusing on the issue of being gay and feeling empty.  So many students, especially in middle school and high school are going through issues, such as identity.  By allowing students to express themselves through poetry is simultaneously counseling students feelings and incorporating academics; In other words, expressing themselves academically.
        Moreover, I am currently taking PSY 302, Psychology of Adolescence, and our class just talked about the issue of identity.  Identity lasts all through adulthood, but is most crucial in mid-adolescence.  I am not sure how old Cellise Craig is, however, it seems like she is going through a hard time with her sexuality, which is also her identity, and who she is.  She explains that her friends tease her about being homosexual, which also brings about the topic of bullying.  According to some theorists ofpsychological development of identity say that schools need to find a way that every student be cared for and counseled.  This poetry slam is a perfect way to do so.  As I said, this poetry slam allows students to explain their feelings academically.  It is like killing two birds with one stone!

Building Language Awareness Module2

          I absolutely loved this video!  The video consisted of an all class skit about the pilgrims who came to the US many years ago.  This was followed by a  guided discussion of their own experiences of when they came to the US and how they felt about their journey.  This touched upon very serious things, such as, how they felt when they left.  Then, the students worked in groups using real travel brochures to create a travel plan of their own, a great way to use comprehensible input with authentic material.  The teachers, aids, and vocabulary was posted around the room to provide the necessary language support/awareness for the students.

          This activity was created to develop language awareness.  We ask ourselves, what does it mean to know a language feature?  It is not enough to know the basic form; Rules, exercises, memorization.  The more effective way is to selectively use the language within a given context, such as the activity on the pilgrims.  The successful learner must know the multiple meanings in a variety of contexts.  In all, these students were the conscious participants in their own learning.

A Revolution of Values

          I decided to read, "A Revolution of Values" by Hooks.  This chapter really hit home for me because it talked about the social injustices we see everyday.  It is so hard to listen to his story because it breaks my heart.  He finally attended his first high school reunion, but this time the reunion was not going to be segregated.  He explains, that during his high school career,  the Black folks had to get on the bus an hour early to go to school so they would not be with the White folks. How sad!   He further explains that people think that this segregation is not alive anymore.  But, in reality, it is.  Take a look at North Lawndale high school in Little Village.  Blacks and Hispanics hold their own; This means that they do not mix with one another.  The district decided to build this high school to include both Hispanic and Blacks to come together and settle their differences.  So far, stats say that it is working.

          A quote that really made me think was as follows: " Our solidarity must be affirmed by shared belief in a spirit of intellectual openness that celebrates diversity, welcomes dissent, and rejoices in collective dedication to truth.  He explains that we should rejoice the dedication to truth.  Truth hurts.  Change hurts.  If we keep distancing ourselves from reality, how are we going to dedicate ourselves to the truth?  It is time to celebrate diversity!  I truly believe if we introduce our students to the truth and that change needs to be done, these students at an early age will not even be able to form stereotypes.  We need to introduce them to the social injustices in our world to overcome them.  As Hooks says, "We cannot despair when there is conflict."  We must attack it!

Autonomy in an ELL Classroom

          Chapter 6 of the Kuma book, "Promoting Learner Autonomy" clearly identified what it is to be autonomous.  The best definition that I took from the chapter was that being autonomous is grounded in a human tendency to seek control over one's life.  Kuma also states, "In a rapidly changing world where instant and informed decision making is a prerequisite for  successful functioning, helping learners become autonomous is one way of maximizing their chances of success."  This success not only means academically, but also psychologically; Basically to be a hard working citizen in society.  


          On pages 139-140, Kuma gives some opportunities for what learners can do to be autonomous, two of which really caught my eye.  The first one is reaching out for opportunities for additional language reception or production beyond what they get in the classroom and taking advantage of opportunities to communicate with competent speakers of the language.  This can be achieved by participating in social and cultural events.  When I read this I was so pleased!  Stephanie and I are actually setting up a workshop for students at the English Language Institute to be a part of a broadcasting opportunity.   By the end of all the workshops, the students will be able to clearly identify broadcasting roles, language discourse in broadcasting, and finally, make new friends.  This opportunity goes hand in hand with what Kuma said about what learners can do to enhance their learning autonomy.  I am very excited to be a part of this opportunity!

We are the consumers of the products based on the curriculum.

          The article, "Curriculum Design and Materials Development" left me with unanswered questions.  I did like however, the way she distinguished between curriculum and syllabus.  Curriculum is a framework or set of guidelines for the teaching of a subject area.  Syllabus is a more particularized document that addresses a specific audience of learners and teachers, a particular course of study or a particular series of textbooks. But, this is where I am feeling confused.  If the curriculum is a framework I am suppose to follow and put in my syllabus, using a particular series of textbooks, how am I suppose to trust the the textbooks when I do not know if these "paraprofessionals" have ever been in a classroom?

          The article describes customers, consumers, and stakeholders.  Language teachers are usually not the actual "customers" of the curriculum, but they certainly are consumers of the products based on the curriculum.  Who then is the major customer of the language curriculum?  "Probably the textbook writers or the course and materials developers, test developers, and program evaluators."  Who are these people,  though?  Have they been in the classroom prior to writing these textbooks?  If not, I believe that the author himself/herself should collaborate with the teacher when creating the materials.  So many teachers trust these textbooks and lesson plans, but are teachers modifying their syllabus to meet the students' needs?  I understand that a textbook cannot and will probably never be perfect, but I do believe that if an author of a textbook collaborates with a teacher/ an or teachers/principals, students (all the stakeholders) the textbook itself can be more legitimate.  I am a pre-service teacher so I am not sure about these textbooks, but I do know for a fact that the learner-based curriculum is a great approach because it places the learner and his/her needs at the center of planning, thus gradually developing the syllabus from loosely planned guidelines based on the learners' needs, and will change throughout the course.

Activating Intuitive Heuristics in Math

          I really enjoyed this chapter because it talks about heuristics.  It refers to the self-discovering on the part of the learner.  As I look back at my mathematics classes in elementary school I feel as if there was no intuitive heuristics that took place.  My teachers used the deductive teaching strategies in that they gave us the rules and we applied them in our work.  Although deductive teaching strategies have there advantages, such as multiplication facts (memorization), it did not always work for me when solving word problems.  So, I created a personal theory of my own to activate heuristics in my prospective mathematics classroom.

        If the teacher first introduces mathematical symbols such as, ‘-’ , ‘+’, and ‘=’ and asks the students to write what they think that these symbols mean in 5 different ways, then the teacher is not explicitly giving the rules.  Rather, the teacher is giving the students the opportunity to come up with their own meaning.  According to Carpenter, “With opportunity and encouragement, children construct themselves strategies that model the action or relationships in the problem” (Carpenter, 1999, p. 3).  Therefore, the teacher need not explicitly give the rules because with opportunity and encouragement children will able able to construct strategies by themseleves.  Students can create their own meaning to the symbols, then as a class, the students could share their responses to their peers and the teacher. 

After the symbols are introduced, word problems could come next with the use of manipulatives.  If the teacher gives every student a certain amount of blocks and writes a word problem on the board, the student can use the manipulatives to come up with the answer.  In the book,  Children’s Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction, the author states that “Children do not have to be taught that a particular strategy goes with a particular type of problem” (Carpenter, 1999, p. 3).  An example of this is a student named Jose who came up with counting strategies all by himself.  The word problem read, “Eliz has 3 dollars to buy cookies.  How many more dollars does she need to have 8 dollars?”  Jose solved this problem by counting on his fingers.  Prior to this, Jose was never taught how to count, it just came naturally to him.  Therefore, Carpenter is correct; children do not have to be taught that particular strategy goes with a particular type of problem.

If the students are coming up with answers to various word problems, the easier it will be for the student to create  a number sentence.  As I said, if the teacher first introduces mathematical symbols and asks the students as to what they all mean, the student will have the ability to identify certain phrases or words in word problems that are equivalent to mathematical symbols.

Students do what comes naturally, and teachers work as facilitators to prompt students to explain how they come about getting the answer. With encouragement, children will feel self-confident in sharing ideas about what certain mathematical symbols mean.  After, students will do what comes naturally when solving word problems, and then finally, will be able to write number sentences by looking at words and phrases in the world problems.

SIOP Chapter 1&2

        How can teachers disregard English learners when close to five million school-age children were identified as limited English proficient in 2004-2005?  It is said that almost all candidatess in teacher education programs will have linguistically and culturally diverse students in their classes during their teaching careers.  A burning question that I wish to ask to current teachers who are not using the SIOP model is if they have ever looked at all the benefits from English learners in their classroom.  This is also another question that I think prospective teachers, such like ourselves, should take into consideration.

        At Illinois State, as a Bilingual ed major, I have no doubt in my mind that I will ever disregard English learners.  The fact is reality.  There are more and more immigrants coming to the US than ever before.  ISU has prepared me to create content objectives and language objectives, together.  First we get out our Illinois State learning standards, and then we get out our WIDA standards when creating a lesson plan.  It is not fair for our students to only go by the content objectives because that huge population of English learners are missing out on their education which will potentially cause them academic failure, drop out, etc, as you have seen before.  Thus, stating the obvious; Are kids dropping out because they don't like school, or are kids dropping out because their teachers are not considering them?

        It is important to look at the SIOP model.  Chapter 2 was on lesson preparation.  First you create content objectives, then language objectives.  From there you appropraite content concepts, use various materials, adapt to the content through meaningful activities.  These feautures of the SIOP model was like a review to me because there has not been one day in any one of my classes that we did not incorporate these features when we talk about lessons.  I found it so surprising that Mrs. Hargoves (one of the scenarios presented in the chapter) did not even create languages objectives when 30% of the student population at her elementary school are English learners.  If Mrs. Hargoves could not even create language objectives, how was she suppose to supply materials for her students to adapt to the content of all student proficiency?

        All in all, I believe that our preparation at ISU has us all in shock when we read such scenarios as the one I stated above.  Am I right?

Progress Report

1. Meeting with Kasia on September 30 at 10:30 AM at the ELI.

Tentative Plans....

2.  Observe in the ELI classrooms twice
3. Create an observation report including the 1st level (student interactions, teacher response), and the 2nd level (teacher insight about the class)
4. 3 workshops
     a. introduction/lecturing
     b. teaching (topic X)
     c. teaching (topic Y)

Toward a postmethod pedagogy

In Kuma's article, "Toward a postmethod pedagogy", he uses the term pedagogy in a broad sense.  He includes pedagogy as classroom strategies, instructional materials, curricular objectives, and evaluation measures.  The most interesting part of the article was actualizing this postmethod pedagogy by including the lead players: the postmethod learner and the postmethod teacher.

         The postmethod learner is an autonomous learner.  They take charge of their learning and how they think, something that I never did when I was in elementary school.  Learners do this by evaluating their learning outcomes by monitoring their language learning progress through personal journals.  Learners use academic autonomy in this way.  On the other hand, learners use their social autonomy by collaborating with other learners to pool information on a specific project they are working on. Therefore, academic autonomy encourages them to be effective learners whereas social autonomy empowers them to be collaborative partners. 

        The postmethod teacher is just like the postmethod learner.  To learn more about my students, I would take Kuma's suggestion about learning about the context of my classroom.  I could use questionnaires, surveys, and interviews to gather information such as the contexts of, family life, learning styles, attitudes towards learning, etc.  To help them become a postmethod learner, I could also develop strategies to observe, analyze, and evaluate their own teaching acts. This was very interesting to me because this is only one little part of a postmethod pedagogy.  But, in reality, it is going above and beyond the "method" that will help create prospective teacher's pedagogy. 

We cannot really teach a language...

"We cannot really teach a language; we can only create conditions under which it will develop in the mind in its own way."
                               -Von Humboldt, 1836, as paraphrased in Noam Chomsky, 1965, p.51


        To be honest, I really did not understand the Communicative Language approach up until I read the quote stated above.  This quote also summed up the article by Stephen Bax, "The end of the CLT: a context approach to language teaching."  The traditional view of language teaching is the Communicative Language approach.  This view suggests that speaking is the most important skill involved in learning a language and that language is used for communication. Context is ignored. The article provides examples of teachers in various countries that believe any other approach is "backwards."  In my opinion, I think they believe any other approach is "backwards" because the CLT has been the tradition since the late 1970's and what is the point of changing it now?  The problem is that students are not being taught communication through context.  Rather, they are being taught by methodology (CLT is seen to be about 'the way we should teach.')
         The context approach, however, looks at the context; at students' attitudes, at parents' wishes, etc.  Some key aspects of contexts are understanding students and their learning needs, wants, styles, and strategies. From there, the teacher can find an approach and language focus that will meet varied learners needs.  As is said in the article,  for a recap, "teachers will develop analytical tools for analyzing and understanding the learning context.  Then, teacher will analyze the context carefully and systematically as far as possible such as, individuals personal differences, learning styles, learning strategies, etc."  In conclusion, every learner is different.  As teachers, we have to take context into consideration because that is the only way 'under which language will develop in the mind in its own way.'

Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 & Kuma Article POWERPOINT

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The Roles of Teachers

Chapter one was called "Conceptualizing Teaching Acts."  I never really thought about roles of teachers in the sense of technical terms.  I only thought as teachers as artists, scientists, managers, facilitators, etc.  This chapter really interested me because the concept of teacher role has developed over the years and has shaped teachers today.  The first role of the teacher is called a Passive Technician.  Basically theorists come up with this knowledge and teachers are trained to understand and implement these theories. Their primary goal of teaching is maximizing content knowledge through activities which is anchored in discipline.   As years passed, the next role was developed, called teachers as reflective practitioners.  Their primary goal of teaching is maximizing learning potential through problem-solving activities while using the integrated approach.  The third role is teachers as transformative intellectuals.  Their primary goal is maximizing sociopolitical awareness through problem-posing activities while using the holistic approach.  The question I ask myself is what role am I going to be as a teacher?  I hope to be a transformative intellectual because it consists of all of the roles and include all the players in the teaching process; teachers, learners, experts, and the community.  I believe with all of these players working together, the school will not only be a place for learning, but also another family.

Language Approaches

      I am a native speaker of English and the first time I was engaged with another language was in my 6th grade Spanish class.  I have experienced a lot of language approaches that my teacher used with us, but the one that I recall the most was the grammar-translation method where students were conscious of the grammatical rules of the target language.  I learned the best with this method because of the deductive way of teaching.  First,  my teacher gave me the grammar rules, I memorized them, and then finally,  translated them from English to Spanish.  I also did this with all of the vocabulary I learned.  Every week the students would pair up and go over the Spanish words on index cards and have the English word written on the back. Although this learning approach had a lot to do with memorizing, I successfully learned the material. In all, vocabulary and grammar were emphasized the most.  There was not a lot of attention on reading and writing up until high school.

       In high school, I was accepted to AP Spanish grammar.  The beginning of class, my teacher reviewed the grammar rules with our class and by the end of that lesson, we were learning vocabulary through literature.  Moreover, the method that my teacher used with us was called the audio-lingual method.  This is where language cannot be separated from culture.  We slowly stepped away from the literature and started translating pictures with no words while speaking Spanish to help with our communicative skills as well as our pronunciation.

      The most comfortable approach would have to be the grammar-translation method because that is how I got started on learning the language, actually successfully learning Spanish.  I like this idea because it uses the idea of both the L1 and the L2, one dimension of Stern's framework; that the L1-L2 is a connection, concerning the first language in learning the second.  This method worked for me.  But, I am not saying that it will work for every one of my students.  All students learn differently, maybe even by ten different approaches. It all depends on the student.  Therefore, I do not believe there is one best method that fits for all of my students.

My Goals and Wishes

Hi everyone!
           My name is Christine Arwakhi, but you can call me Tina.  I am a Bilingual education major with a TESOL minor and Spanish minor.  The context in which I would like to teach and live in is in an urban neighborhood, most likely Pilsen, a Mexican-American neighborhood. This would be a great place for me because I absolutely love students from diverse backgrounds and am very interested in learning about their cultures as well as their beliefs, morals, etc. At Illinois State, there is a program called PDS (Professional Development Schools) where the student takes certain classes at a nearby university in a certain neighborhood, and then student teaches in that same neighborhood the following semester.  I am very interested in this program and hope to be accepted in the PDS program.  For anyone who would like more information about this program, go to the PDS showcase in DeGarmo 551 on Thursday, September 9 from 10am-5pm.  =)
         I believe that it is very important to be knowledgeable about TESOL issues because as a I bilingual educator I should be aware of what is going on in this field.  The most important is how to teach schooling in the US, because in many others countries schooling is totally different.  I also believe that appropriate assessment for English language learners is key so that our learners improve in their literacy skills in English but at the same time preserve their native culture and speaking.  My goals as a language educator are to do all these things, as well as establishing a comfortable environment, assessing my learners through both content and language proficiency.