Entry 3: Interview with a Teacher
One of the ways Erika mentioned she helped her ELLs was by working in small groups and acting out certain academic content. One of the videos we watched in this course was The Chat Show, which was a listening and speaking activity that a teacher used in her classroom (todaywomenhealth, 2010). The teacher in the video acted like a host of a chat show where students created their own questions and asked their questions to the characters. Acting out this Chat Show helped the students listens for what other’s where saying and also respond to their questions. Acting out problems, stories, history, and much more gives ELLs an opportunity to develop listening and speaking skills in that language. I personally have never seen this been done in the classroom but I can see the benefit of acting out and pretending to be in scenario, as it develops many skills and it can be fun!
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching english language learners: Research, theory,
policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Carlson Inc.
Todaywomenhealth. (2010, Nov). Speaking and Listening Activities- The Chat Show.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=g64K8Y6cbcY&feature=youtu.be
Hello Alondra. In your reflection, you mentioned that Erika likes to support the students’ home language while they learn English. This is also known as Developmental Bilingual Education (DBE). According to Wright (2015), the goal of DBE programs is to assist students in becoming bilingual and biliterate in both languages (p. 99). It is great to hear of teachers in the field working to help students achieve this goal. In your VBlog, Erika mentions the struggles that ELL students face when taking a high stakes test in English. This unfortunately is the bias issues that surround high stakes testing. Wright (2015) states, “educators continue to find examples of subtle forms of bias in test questions” (p. 126). This goes to show that even though test developers have tried to correct this issue, ELL students are still finding themselves faces with bias test questions.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hey Eddy!
DeleteI’m glad you brought up bias that exists in test questions and the impact they have on ELLs. Wright has a chapter on Assessment where he discusses reliability, validity, bias, and many more aspects of assessments (Wright, 2015). Wright discusses how the issue of bias is really about “validity” because bias can hurt valid test scores and the interpretation of them (Wright, 2015). ELLs are affected by this as test scores might not represent the student’s true knowledge because of the bias in the test questions. Some test questions penalize ELLs through bias and that is not fair to ELLs.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching english language learners: Research, theory,
policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Carlson Inc.
I enjoyed listening to your interview. In the interview Erika talks about how she helps ELLs have success, she mentions small group learning. According to Wright (2015), “this is type of instruction is cooperative learning. Students work together on pairs or in small groups to solve a problem, complete a task, or complete a project. This is an effective strategy for helping ELLs learn both language and content” (p. 170). I found it interesting during the interview, where Erika talked about ELLs struggles of learning and during that part she mentioned her struggles when working with two different programs. I never thought about teachers having a struggle in what program they are in as well as students. Erika mentioned the dual language program was harder than the transitional bilingual education (TBE) program. According to Wright (2015), dual language is two-way immersion” (p. 100). “TBE program is where ELL students are transitioned to English-medium classroom quickly” (p.97). I could see where teaching a math class could be harder to teach in both languages, without falling behind in instructional time and content. Thank you for sharing Erika's story.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory,
Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hey Adrene!
DeleteI am glad Erika was able to share her opinions and experiences. Classrooms having a lot diversity, has schools and educators looking at different Bilingual models to implement in order to provide the best opportunities for students. Wright wrote a section on “determining the most appropriate ELL program for your school,” and explained how one model won’t fit everyones needs but it is the teachers and administration job to “collaborate” and “study” their student’s characteristics (Wright, 2015). As future educators, we will become advocates for our students and part of that is sharing our opinions and thoughts about instruction. Students deserve support in their learning and teachers know first hand what works and what could be improved.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching english language learners: Research, theory,
policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Carlson Inc.
Hi Alondra! Erika mentioned working with students in a transitional bilingual education program. I personally like the goal of this program because it provides "content-area instruction in the students' home languages so schools can ensure that students do not fall behind academically while they are learning English" (Wright, 2015, page 97). I believe that it is important for students to be able to maintain their native language while still building up their English, which is exactly what this program does. Unfortunately, this program "reflects an assumption that ELLs can become proficient in English in 2 to 3 years and thus be ready for all-English instruction in a mainstream classroom. But few students learn a second language fluently that quickly" (Wright, 2015, page 97). So while the goal is to transition ELLs as quickly as possible, they are often pushed into mainstream classrooms before they are ready.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hello Marissa,
DeleteI can understand your stance on the Transitional Bilingual Education program. I would like to say that Dual Language or Developmental Bilingual Education programs may do the English Language Learners more justice. The reason for this is due to Wrights’ description of the TBE having a “language-as-problem” orientation (2015. p. 97). The other two programs however, have the opposite orientation towards ELL students. In fact, Wright (2015) shows two table (table 5.2 and 5.4), which detail the 90-10 rule for ELL instructions (p. 99 and 101). These tables show that instruction starts of at 90% of the ELLs native language and English instruction is slowly introduced over the years.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Eddy! I agree that DBE programs are a stronger model for ELLs. While TBE programs have a good goal not all students are able to meet them quick enough. When discussing DBEs Wright mentions, "the home language is viewed as a resource, used for instructional purposed, and further developed even after ELLs have attained sufficient proficiency in English to handle English-medium instruction. Because a DBE program could constitute half or more of a child's education and in such a program students have the opportunity to develop their home language skills to a higher level than in a TBE program, they are much more likely to be proficient bilinguals by the time they graduate from high school" (2015, page 99). Unfortunately TBE programs are more common than DBE programs because they receive the greatest amount of federal support.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Marissa!
DeleteYeah I see how transitioning ELLs quickly into an all English classroom can push students when they aren’t ready. Language has so much depth as Wright mentioned when he discusses phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, etc. (Wright, 2015). Teachers have to have knowledge of the language in order to help ELLs develop fluency and comprehension. ELLs growth and learning vary and while some students may become proficient in 2 to 3 years others may not. Bilingual programs set out to help language development but not one program works for every students.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching english language learners: Research, theory,
policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Carlson Inc.
A transitional bilingual education program is helpful to students who are trying to transition from a native language such as Spanish to full English classrooms. It is a process that students could find more comfortable as they are gradually moved to higher grade levels. I have been to a school that has this program, but only concern is how the appropriate-level jump is measured. However, the program promotes language socialization which allows for students to develop their English abilities so that they can properly communicate with others (Wright, 2015, p.58). As students become more comfortable with the language, they are able to learn more and connect with others.
ReplyDeleteHey Kimberly!
DeleteI like how you included socialization and communication in your response and connected it to how it helps ELLs be more comfortable in the language. Wright mentions many times the impact cooperative learning has on ELLs and how providing opportunities to interact with others boost the “communicative competence both in the oral and written language(s) in students” (Wright, 2015). ELLs having confidence in the language development encourages them to continue to work on becoming proficient in the new language.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching english language learners: Research, theory,
policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Carlson Inc.
Hey Alondra. Great interview. When Ms. Serrano spoke of a Transitional Bilingual Education Program, I was able to identify with this because this is the majority of the programs that I encountered when I was in school and now during student teaching. Wright (2015) talks about how Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) is “the most common bilingual program in the U.S.” (Wright, p.78) These have been the programs I encountered where it is a gradual transition from an environment where both languages are present to one where only English is presented. While this does seem to help ELL students grow in their L2, I would think that this would be detrimental to their L1 or native language. Dual language programs would seem more beneficial to me especially because students have to take another language later in their education anyways.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hi Jerome!
DeleteI agree with you that students stop developing their native language when the transition into an English classroom. I know some ELLs to begin with aren’t fluent in their first language as a lot of informal and slang of the language is talked at home. Dual language programs work to “develop bilingualism and biliteracy” which does not leave behind a language but rather work to develop two languages (Wright, 2015). Like you, I see great value in having a program that develops to languages as we can use the language in our lives.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching english language learners: Research, theory,
policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Carlson Inc.
Great interview. Lots of ideas are being discussed in this entry and I am glad to see that this class is impacting your preparation as future teachers of ELLs.
ReplyDelete