Sunteți pe pagina 1din 10

Ali Pravda

11081138 alp993

April 9, 2015

Teaching English as a Second Language 34:


TESL for Aboriginal People

Assignment 1 (B)

Joan Dunn
Response 1:

Module 6:

[there are] harmful effects which follow from educators unconscious

acceptance of labels such as at risk, learning disabled, and other such

terms [as] assessment and placement are often discriminatory because

minority children are over-represented in special education. (p. 6-5)

And:

Module 11: Diverse Voices (Guidelines).

Different forms of bias occur: invisibility/omission; stereotyping;

imbalance; unreality; fragmentation/isolation; linguistic bias (p. 1)

Using terms like at risk and learning disabled to label students can

possibly be just as harmful as not using these terms. As the quote implies,

children are under-achieving when given low-expectations. They are not

allowed to achieve because they are already assumed to be unable of it.

While on the other hand, for students who live in poverty, experience racism,

or come from a home-life that is unable to be supportive, it would seem

necessary that they would need extra assistance to achieve the same

amount of success; rather, being treated equal is not necessarily equality.

There does need to be some sort of aid for the students who are in need, or

else society will continue to see a gap between those who gain from their

privileges and those who are of the minority. So rather, when is it necessary

to intervene? Surely proactive action is the better route to ensure students


stay on track, rather than fall behind and then try to catch up. Therefore it is

not as simple as stating that these terms should not be used, or that groups

of students should or should not be given educational intervention, rather, as

educators, we need to reevaluate what it means to be at risk or learning

disabled and the stereotypes that exist with these labels. Once that we are

aware of the unconscious assumptions (i.e. the different forms of biases) that

occur then we are closer to being able to assist each student without bias.

Therefore, only through our own education can we truly help students

without discriminating them.

Response 2:

Module 7:

Move from teacher-directed one-answer-is-right discussions to open-ended,

searching-for-meaning discussions. (p. 7-7)

And:

Module 9: Snow Fighting with Spring: Building on Young English Language

Learners Thinking:

[In] group-time discussion, [she] did not limit childrens participation to

providing choral responses or answering predictable questions. Instead, she

included more open-ended questions that asked for childrens interpretation

of the spring pictures, and she welcomed childrens personal narratives about

their snow experiences, even though they did not fit her seasonal

agenda. (p. 29)


Open-ended questions and open discussion are methods that I have

been striving for since I began my career. At the start of my teaching it was

all too easy to ask any questions? or does this make sense? and get little

to no response. While trying to develop my skills it has become useful to

simply ask why? after a students answer, which is an easy method for

aiding further explanation and critical thinking. I am still establishing the

ability to ask thought-provoking questions in the classroom. Planning critical-

thinking questions beforehand does assist with this area, but as a substitute

teacher this opportunity is rarely the case. Instead, the substantial issue is

that students are unwilling to discuss, or that there is only a fraction of the

class that has something to say (which will be further discussed in Response

3).

The idea of allowing students to further explore learning through their

own thoughts and discussion is relevant to any topic of study or language

group. Students will be able to gain more information if they can discuss the

conceptpossibly even in their first language, if not Englishand will also

gain deeper meaning if given thought-provoking questions. Sometimes these

discussions are not a part of the lesson plan but they do stem into teachable

and expandable moments (pg. 27) which is why classroom discussion can be

so useful in the learning process.

Response 3:

Module 8: Understanding the Rules of Culture

[M]ake a situation more familiar, and elicit greater participation, by adapting


the rituals and symbols of your local community. (p. 2)

And:

Module 9: Snow Fighting with Spring: Building on Young English Language

Learners Thinking

First, start with the expectation that the children really are thinking, even

though they cannot always express their ideas easily or elaborate on them

clearly. (p. 27)

I often struggle with student participation in class discussions. As a

visiting teacher I am already making the situation unfamiliar for the student

and know little about the community of the classroom. Luckily many teachers

will leave procedures that students are familiar with and students will also

give you insight into the regular routines of their schedule, but it is still

unclear of when to pursue participation from a student. It comforts me to

know that the regular teacher is well aware of the students needs and

assesses them on the regular, therefore if a student does not participate in

class discussion one day then they are still getting opportunities to show that

they are learning. I do find it difficult to expect or assume that the student is

learning. Yes, they are thinking, but they may not understand or have

grasped the depth of the idea that the teacher is trying to convey. Again, the

idea of the children really are thinking oversimplifies student learning and

excuses the teacher from verifying the students level of understanding.

Instead, as educators, we need to find different methods of formative

assessment, such as pointing, gesturing, or drawing. I do agree that the most


important concept here is that if a student is not ready to participate then it

can be harming to push them to do so. Patience is rather the best option in

this case and shows caring, understanding, and empathy. In doing so,

students can learn at their own pace and are allowed to speak when they feel

comfortable.

Response 4:

Module 10: Textbook, Chapter 6.

Skim the entire piece of writing before recording comments. (p. 218)

Inventive spellers errors dont interfere with their learning to spell correctly

later. Like early attempts to walk, talk, and draw, initial attempts to spell do

not produce habits to be overcome Most errors in spelling are not random.

They are based on a students stage of understanding of sound-letter

correspondences. As with any other skill, children begin with gross

approximations, improving their accuracy as they go. (p. 220)

The idea of skimming a students piece of writing first is logical and I

have seen the benefits of it first hand. A similar method is to note that if a

student makes the same mistake about five times then to hand the piece

back and ask them to fix that error throughout the paper. The idea here is

that students are unable to learn from correcting every single mistake, so it is

beneficial to focus on major errors instead. The method of looking over the

piece first can be unrealistic though. With a tutorial class full of ELLs it can

be difficult to spare any additional time as there may be half a dozen to a


dozen other students who need the help as well. I have experienced three to

four students needing my help at the beginning of class before they can

continue on with their paper or project. It is difficult enough to find the time

to correct each students paper, let alone read it first before making edits. It

seems sometimes quicker to simply make the corrections for them so that

the paper is ready to hand inparticularly since the ideas are there, they just

need the paper edited. But of course students still need to have control of

their work, which is another reason why it is not best to do the corrections for

them. It may be actually quicker to read it once and assess a handful of

errors and move on, rather than circling or correcting each one. Originally I

thought it would be better to correct the mistakes myself so that students

would have a good English model for when they would read it again. The

second quote from the textbook tells me otherwise; that the student will be

able to fix the error once that their skills have been developed enough. These

points make me reevaluate how I approach correcting a students paper and

allows me to make teaching and learning the priorities and not just a perfect

final draft.

Response 5:

Module 12: Pre-reading activity: [Shirley Brice Heath] documented how

children who have not had certain experiences are set up for failure in a

traditional school program. showed how many children who are successful

must make monumental efforts in the face of more adversity by the time

they are six than most of us will ever see in a lifetime. (p. 12-2)
And:

Module 13: Which of the pre-reading activities could you use? (P. 13-4)

The idea that children are faced with struggle, difficulties, and

misfortune is something that should be taught with deeper focus throughout

the college of education. Talk of poverty, parent separation, trauma, and child

psychology are deemphasized or overlooked altogether. As stated in

Response 1 it is important to not immediately and regularly deem these

students as at risk simply because of their past adversities, as this

assumption can be just as damaging, but rather educators need to use

empathy and compassion while helping students through the healing

process. It is disheartening to think that educators are unaware or indifferent

to these struggles and misunderstand their under achievement or

misbehavior as anything other than reacting to previous pain and anguish.

This pre-reading activity resolved to me the idea that so much of a

students success is determined before they even enter the school, and that

during their first couple of years of education their success or failure can

have a life-altering impact. Of course this structure is not concrete as many

other factors contribute, but this piece of text allowed me to solidify the

reality of these learners efforts in the face of their everyday lives. This type

of recognition is the purpose of these pre-reading activities, that being to get

a different look at the topic and to begin to form opinions. Pre-reading

activities not only allow critical thinking of a subject but also allow students
to respond freely, develop writing or oral skills, and to learn about others

perspectives. Brainstorming, free-writing, dawing, testing, and responding to

a visual or text (P. 13-4) are all excellent methods in determining what

students already know about a subject and in creating motivation and

interest in students. I would use each of these in moderation in a classroom.


Works Cited:

Charlie, L. (2000, Nov./Dec.) Understanding the rules of culture. Teacher 13

(3). Teacher Newsmagazine.

Fassler, R. (2001, September). Snow Fighting with Spring: Building on Young

English Language Learners Thinking. Childhood Education, 78 (1), 25-

29. Taylor & Francis Online/Association for Childhood Education

International (ACEI).

Law, B. Eckes, M. (2010, 3rd ed) The More Than Just Surviving Handbook: ESL

for Every Classroom Teacher. Portland and Main Press.

Saskatchewan Education. Diverse VoicesSelecting Equitable Resources for

Indian and Metis Education, April 1992

S-ar putea să vă placă și