Assessment Myths

I find assessment to be extremely interesting, especially since it is such an important component of the ESL classroom. Educators constantly need to be assessing and reassessing their students to make sure that they are understanding the material, however it seems that there is much controversy about standardized testing, and initial testing of the ESL learners. 

I feel bad for ESL learners who are forced to take the same standardized tests as their English native-speaking peers, however, they need to learn the skills to succeed in these tests because it is going to be a part of their learning in the future. It is a hard choice for the ESL teacher to make, because they want their students to achieve dominance in the language but at the same time they want to see their students succeed on the state standardized test. I would say that it is wrong to teach to the test so that the students succeed, however I believe that ESL teachers can implement activities that mirror practices used on the standardized tests. The students need to understand the format of the test, such as multiple choice, short essay, short reading comprehension, etc., so that they can get a good score. All of the listed formats can be implemented in the classroom as well. For example, the students can read a short story and answer multiple choice questions after the reading to check for comprehension. This is not teaching to the test, because the reading can go with the content material, it is the idea that they are practicing multiple choice questions since many of them are unlikely to be familiar with it in the beginning. 

I feel bad for the teacher, Margaret, who was given two new students in one week without any background information on them. I can not imagine how hard that would be. I feel that ESL teachers have it the hardest, because they TRULY need to know each and every one of their students so that they can understand their mannerisms and their process in education. What I think is even harder, is that ESL teachers often get students in the middle of the year-- this happened in my practicum hours when a young girl from Guatemala arrived half-way through the first semester. It's almost as if the teacher has to go back and review everything, and change the classroom dynamic and everything, including changing her classroom vocabulary to that which is simpler for the newly arrived student to understand. Learning a language is a bottom-up process in which one skill needs to be dominated to build onto the next skill. It is extremely difficult to come into the school year after the most basic skills have already been dominated and the new students peers are moving up, while they are stuck at ground zero. This is why it is so important to know as much at the student as possible so that they are provided with the most effective education that caters to their needs. Assessment is important for this reason so that the students can be evaluated, and placed at a level that is comfortable to them.

I never learned about BSM or LAS before, so if I was to be a new teacher who recieved a new student with a low score of LAS, I would just assume that they had extremely LEP. The reality of this myth states that it is important to constantly assess the student after the initial assessments, and I believe that this is a no-brainer, because if I ever recieved a new student- I would constantly be assessing their progress in the class and in the target language.

Assessment is as important in the classroom as teaching is. This means that the teacher is not only assessing her students, but self-assessing her methods as well. Just because we learn many different methods that are thought to be effective, does not mean that they will be effective for the language learner. For this reason, assessment is required to ensure the success of each student and the success of the teacher as well.

11/14

QUE MALA SUERTE! what bad luck! I lost my Myths book, so now I am sad!

But anyways, like I have discussed before I am focusing on strategies for my 345 research paper, however I am having a hard time narrowing it down! I am not sure how to do so, because I feel like all strategies are great for the students, although I feel like I am going to be focusing on strategies that build the students literacy and how this will effect them in their regular classes. This material, is hard to find since there is not much research on how strategies can be implemented by the students in their regular classes, however I am interested to see if there is any research that discusses the benefits of literacy strategies in general. Luckily, there is a big focus on reading skills and writing skills in my ESL clinical classroom, so I am able to get many observations to support my paper.

I need to find a focus for my observation hours, however I have already been focusing on the use of strategies in the classroom, using these notes to hopefully benefit how I teach in the future. One thing that I wish to do with my students is prepare them for mainstream classrooms but I feel that there is so much that I need to do to prepare them, and not enough time. It is unfortunate that students cannot stay in ESL throughout their entire schooling experience, because I feel that the time they spend in the classroom is not sufficient to provide them with the competence they need to survive in the academic communication that school requires, There is so much to teach about culture, about the language, and about how to become autonomous in their learning that I fear I will not be able to completely prepare them! My only hope is to provide them with useful information that they can use outside of the classroom, and I truly advocate that strategies are a great way to do so!

Translating at parent-teacher conferences

So as you know, this past week I went to Chicago to translate at the parent-teacher conferences. I was placed in a 2nd grade classroom, with Mrs. Casper an African-American teacher who has been teaching for over 30 years and is close to retirement. I believe that they specifically placed me with this teacher to translate because she spoke with a thick accent, and many times she used African American venicular. I can she why this was a good choice, because for all of the parents that I translated for, it seemed that they did not understand a single word she was saying. She was a very inspiring teacher and she had much to say about what school is like in CPS. She has been working in Mexican communities throughout much of her experience and she says that she truly enjoys it, although she described to me many of the struggles she faces due to low funding and lack of materials. Even with the limited resources that CPS educators face, her classroom was full of color, with products of the student's learning displayed on all of the walls. I translated for 30 conferences, only 3 parents felt comfortable speaking English the entire time.

I had many questions to ask her what she does to aid the students who have limited English proficiency, and she had much to say. First of all, I would say that 99% of the students spoke Spanish as their first language. Also, about 95% of the parents who came in also had limited English proficiency as well. This means that the learners are spending the majority, if not all, of their time outside of school speaking Spanish. I asked Mrs. Casper how the limited English of almost all of her students effected her implementing lessons in the classroom. What she explained to me was interesting: she said that they do very basic stuff with a focus on developing their literacy in reading and writing. She explained that her goal is to build their vocabulary in using the language, and wants the students to focus on phonetics as well. When I asked her what she does to differentiate instruction for the students who do not even speak English at all, she explained that she just has to use big motions, or that the students will have a peer explain it to them.

There was a very interesting case of one student, whos mother was concerned because her daughter had never taken ESL classes in the past, due to the fact that there was no room and they were full. The mother seeked to get her extra help in building her skills of using English, although there was only one program that she could attend after school, however she could not attend this tutoring session because she has other priorities after school. I felt so bad for this girl, her mother was so concerned that she did not understand anything that was going on. I asked the mother if she had any older relatives that speak English and she said unfortunately no. I then asked if her daughter listens to English music or watches English tv...she explained that pretty much everything is in Spanish. I then suggested that she lets her daughter watch English tv and listen to English music, because the more exposure she gets to the language, the easier it will be for her to start understanding what the teacher is saying.

One of the things that I wanted to focus on was the concern that the parents had for their students learning. Since this was a second grade classroom, of course the parents were concerned with how their students were doing, however if this had been a highschool parent-teacher conference, I feel that there would be a much greater difference in attendance and concern for their childs learning. The majority of the parents were not really concerned with if they were doing well, pretty much every single parent asked if their child was behaving and if they talked to much.

As I said before, I found Mrs. Casper to be very inspiring. She was a very wise and experienced teacher who showed great passion in her teaching. I asked her what made her decide to stick in Chicago. I then explained that many people view teaching in CPS as a challenge, especially due to the lack of resources and the bad rep of the behavior of the students. Her response was very sincere and she said that she herself, as well as all of her children and their children, attended CPS. She told me that she could get a job working in a suburban area, with plentiful resources, and with well-behaved driven school- but that she prefers to work in CPS because it is much more rewarding. She said that her job is not easy, not in any way shape or form, however she wants to give these students the education that they deserve because she wants to make sure they succeed.

Overall, it was a very rewarding experience, and even more so it was interesting to see what the conferences were going to be like in this 2nd grade classroom in Little Village.