Made In America Intro-Chapter 2

Introduction

As I began reading “Made in America”, I was really excited to see what Laurie Olsen would do with her research and how she would address the issues of racism, prejudice, and multiculturalism.  I am really interested to see how Madison High School is representative of our nation and how, as a future teacher, I can use this knowledge base and Olsen’s experiences in both my ESL and mainstream courses.  I just finished re-writing my teaching philosophy and incorporated the issue of multiculturalism.  As I stated in my philosophy, teachers are now faced with a global classroom and the challenged that accompany it.  I really am looking forward to seeing how Olsen’s research and experiences pan out.

Chapter 1

The first thing that struck me when reading Chapter 1 was the student Patty’s comment about the Chinese students and their game.  I thought it showed an interesting dynamic within the school – students might be interested in other cultures and languages but do not actively engage (or attempt to engage) in the other cultures.  Patty could have asked to learn the game, or asked more questions about why they play that game, but chose not too.  I’m not sure if this is setting a general tone for the entire student body/school, but It made me stop to think about how I would actually address and embrace a multicultural learning community.

I think that it is extremely important to understand the history of the cultures in my room, and their stories of immigration.  I really enjoyed the brief history lesson on California immigration and changes in the schools.  I’m fairly unfamiliar with the history, so it was a nice background to the dynamic of Madison High School.

Chapter 2

This chapter really hit me.  It was incredible to read some of the stories and experiences that these newcomer students had.  For example, one of the students, Carolina, talked about how she had been laughed at when she first moved to America by the “native-borns”.  She felt completely isolated and ashamed of who she was because she hadn’t yet learned “how to be American”.  After reading this, I completely changed my idea about the experiences immigrant students have – it isn’t just about learning to speak English or write in English, it is about learning how to be American (what to wear, how to act, how to play sports).  All of the things that native-born students think are inconsequential are actually a really big deal for immigrant students.  It was so powerful to read that the students were so afraid of the laughter.  Being made fun of seemed to be a bigger concern than making errors on homework.  It was cause for much of the immigrant students’ anxiety, silence, and isolation.

I really struggled with this chapter because it was difficult for me to imagine what this sort of self-induced separation would look like.  At the high school that I went to, almost all of the groups were interracial and multicultural.  It was almost shocking to me to read that some students felt so isolated.  I’m not sure if this is because we had a low level of ELL learners, or if I was just unexposed to and unaware of this separation and isolation.

Cary Chapters 9 & 10

Chapter Nine
Second Language Acquisition can be difficult for learners at any age, especially when they are forced into an English Only setting.  I liked how Dolores incorporated many of her students' home languages into the classroom in order to create a sense of inclusiveness that balanced both English an LOTE.  I definitely agree with her idea to incorporate many different types of parent/college student aids, but I also question the feasibility of providing such support for my future students.  The text said that Dolores usually had at least one aid to act as a resource for her students every day.  I think that it is amazing she had so much help and involvement from parents and community members.  Realistically though, I think it would be really difficult for me to find aids that would be able to support each of my ESL students at a high school level.

However, I still thought that Dolores' experiences could be relevant and helpful in my future classroom.  For instance, I liked how she published a classroom newspaper that encouraged her students to engage in the material and experience an editing process.  Along writing the jokes and articles for the newspaper, the students also had to review edit each other's submissions to choose the most acceptable or 'news-worthy' entries.  This is a great idea for ESL learners because it allows them to get comfortable with the idea of having their English corrected in a low-anxiety setting.  It also shows ESL students that native English speakers need help and editing too.  The newspaper also creates a project that encourages more advanced writing and reading skills and acts as a visual representation of the students' progress.

I wish that the chapter would have covered more ways to relate to our ESL students whose native languages we are unfamiliar with.  Dolores offered useful tips like the classroom aids and focusing on both first and second language development (not just support!), but it just seems impossible in certain school and community settings.  How are we supposed to reach these students without access to so many aids or in a district that does not support a bilingual classroom?  How do we encourage students that their first language is important and worth developing when we are working in communities that are typically English Only?

Chapter 10
This past weekend, I went to the Illinois Association of Teachers of English conference in Springfield.  In one of the sessions, we talked about including games in the classroom and motivating students through some sort of reward.  I was reminded of this reward concept when Toby offered art work exposure to his students which extrinsically motivated them to collaborate and produce high caliber projects.

Initially, I was a little shocked by the level of racism that Toby felt he was experiencing in his multilingual classrooms.  Especially for the 5th grade, his students seemed to be expressing some pretty intense feelings of hatred or discontent with speakers of other languages.  It was brilliant that Toby created a project that required students of various language and cultural backgrounds to collaborate in order to get the extrinsic rewards that were offered.

The real take-away message from this chapter is that in order to avoid conflict (or manage conflict when it occurs) teachers need to establish and encourage multi-cultural exploration and understanding.  Toby attempted to gain multi-cultural understanding to stop the conflicts in his classroom by exposing students to the cultures they were mocking and requiring interaction with students of other cultures and language backgrounds.

These types of conflicts are prevalent in various educational settings, whether it is your classroom, the hallways, or an after-school program, and typically require immediate and comprehensive attention.  Cary listed several different scenarios based on grade levels that could potentially cause conflict in the classroom.  As a future teacher, I thought that this was really helpful because it allowed me to consider how I would handle situations that I haven't experienced yet.  Personally, I think that encouraging a multi-cultural classroom that is open and inclusive is most effective in deterring peer conflict.

Cary Chapters 6 & 7

Chapter Six
This chapter discusses a question I find myself wondering quite frequently - how do I help students improve their English writing?  Since the first time I wrote my own lesson plan, the idea of helping my students become better writers has always been perplexing.  Do I give my students a bunch of grammar handouts and require rote memorization? Do I have them write about something - anything! - every day?  How much is too much to expect from students? Most importantly, how can I motivate my students to want to write?

Victor presented a variety of different strategies to help tackle some of my questions and really get kids interested in in the writing process.  First of all, it is almost impossible to hold any student's interest with grammar assignments and required daily journals on prompts that mean little to nothing to them - if I had a nickel for every time I was forced to write about my favorite pet or childhood hero, I would probably be very wealthy! I really loved Victor's approach to writing.  He gave his students a topic that impacted them and made them invest their time in it.  By getting the students invested and engaged in the topic (their own safety!), his students were more willing to participate in the writing process.

My favorite part about his unit, besides getting the students interested, was that Victor started the letter to the Mayor as a class.  Especially in the ELL setting, I think that group/class work facilitated by the teacher creates a low stress environment and encourages more participation.  He made "fix-ups" and brainstorming ideas a part of the classroom every day.  When students made mistakes, it seems like they would be less likely to withdrawal again and listen to the "editing crow."  After the group/class work, Victor had his students write individual letters.  Although each letter they would write would be different from the last, he set his students up with the tools they needed to create well-written letters.  He also ensured that each student had help from both the teacher and their peers to fix any mistakes they may have come across.

Victor's purpose-based writing activity really made me think about what I was focusing on in my own lesson plans.  Although it is important to note that not every activity or teaching method will work for each classroom, I think it is even more important to evaluate the plans we are creating to ensure that we are benefiting our students as much as possible.  This comes from having a well-balanced plan; for improving writing, that may be differentiating writing styles (why students are writing), alternating between form and message (pick your battles!), and involving students in all three steps of the think, write, and revise cycle.

One of my favorite things to incorporate into the classroom to assess student writing is the student portfolios.  I think it is a great way to get students involved in their own assessment.  Portfolios are physical proof of what progress has been made and offers up something tangible that students can be proud of at the end of the school year.  By adding specific writing assignments to the portfolio, it can be an effective way for teachers to see how progress is being made/not being made and beneficial when discussing what a student may need to improve upon.

Chapter Seven
Although I will most likely not be teaching at the 4th grade level, I really liked the way that Joellen took a proactive approach to incorporating both ELD and content material in her lessons.  In her Shoebox archaeology unit, she used a variety of methods to engage her mainstream students while still providing enough background knowledge/support for the ELL students to also be engaged and comprehend the content material.

As like several of the other teachers in this textbook, Joellen began her unit with an attention grabber - the archaeology "dig" project - to spark her students' interest.  In a high school English course, I could see myself introducing a novel like The Crucible by Arthur Miller with a witch hunt activity or a role play  that would have a similar effect.  I would supplement these activities with my own demonstrations to link vocabulary to actions and create meaning for my ELL students.

I also really liked how she engaged her lowest-level ELL students in the material by guiding them through activities with the language needed for that day.  I could see myself using this strategy in both a pull-aside and entire class setting.  It is important to review vocabulary and certain idioms to enhance overall comprehension.  At a high school level, this could look like wall-text and text-tours, or simple paired activities.

The most important things I took from these two chapters is to create activities and lessons that are engaging by offering multiple platforms for students to experience the material.  Whether it is through various writing and drawing activities or turning a hands-on activity like the archaeology dig into a research project, students of all language proficiencies need a variety of mediums in order to understand the material.

Not only did Joellen require hands-on participation through the artifact dig, she also had the students discuss what they had found and write down multimodal descriptions.  This was a fantastic use of the activity and required her students to engage with each other and help each other to understand what they had found.  She also had the students organize their group's assumptions of the artifact prior to engaging in research which encourages students to think critically about the artifact and use their background knowledge.  Finally, she ended in the research presentations for each group which resulted in a great discussion about how each of the artifacts were connected.

Drawing connections seems to be vital to the success of any ELL program/lesson.  Without the connections to other content/lessons/core subjects, there seems to be a learning gap for ELL learners.  Although it is nearly impossible to create these connections every time and with everything our students are learning, I think that it is very important to strive to make those connections in order to help our students reach their academic potential.

Cary Chapters 4 & 5

Chapter Four

When I first started reading Chapter Four, I have to admit that I was beginning to get a little bit skeptical about the textbook.  The last few chapters seemed to highlight moderately to extremely successful instances with second language learners and I found myself enjoying the experiences being shared in the textbook, but also questioning what I was going to do if (and when) I was presented with a student who was really struggling with acquiring English.

I thought that the way that Cathy handled her ELL students, Gustavo and Erica, was really insightful.  It is a great idea to get to know your students on a cultural level (like we discussed last week) and on a more personal level.   By getting to know what interests her students, Cathy was able to come up with creative ways to increase their English usage.  This strategy can also be used in mainstream classrooms to help increase student participation as a whole.  Along with getting to know her students, I think that Cathy actually provided her students with opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations which made it much easier for her students to produce speech acts in a low stress environment. I was also pleasantly surprised when they started discussing the third ELL student, Ophelia. Although, I didn't like that Ophelia wasn't making 100% progress, it was almost comforting to actually read about a teacher who was struggling so much with helping a student acquire English as a Second Language.

It was also kind of a relief to read that Cathy's teaching, as amazing and thorough as it was, was not all that sparked her students' progress in English acquisition.  It takes some of the pressure off of us as teachers to realize that not all students will benefit from classroom learning and that we cannot possibly give them all the lessons they need in order to be successful academically.  What we can do, however, is give them the tools they need in order to be successful.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this chapter was the interest inventory.  I volunteer for a local program called Partners in Reading at the Normal Public Library which helps younger children become better readers.  Part of what we do during our first meeting is take an interest inventory of the child we are working with.  Although they aren't typically second language learners, they are young children who are still learning the language.  I found this strategy to be extremely helpful with the children I am partnered with because it allows me to find books that might interest them more which makes the reading/learning process more fun and exciting!

Chapter Five

This chapter really made me think about how and why I will use textbooks in my future classes.  Eventually, I will be teaching high school English, so a lot of my lessons will revolve around novels - not necessarily textbooks.  After reading about Karen's classroom, it made me re-evaluate how I create my lesson plans; obviously I am going to have to focus a lot on the novels, but each novel should be treated as a supplementary text to be combined with other media and texts.  This approach is transferrable in a class with both ELL and mainstream students because it helps to encourage understanding on multiple levels.

I recently learned about text tours in my Teaching Literature course and I find them to be very helpful when introducing a new topic or novel.  She was able to help them understand the chapter (or at least start to!) and implicitly introduce reading and comprehension strategies. I also liked how Karen was able to go with the flow, so to speak, with her students and encouraged them to process the information by making it more personal to them.  She actually postponed the lesson because she felt that the personal stories would help her students understand the material better  In the end, I think that it made her students more engaged in the text and excited to learn.  It was almost like the high school edition of Jeff's Box Sledding introduction - it gave the students a desire to learn about the topic at hand.

I also really liked the handout that Karen gave her students to summarize the chapter.  I think that its simple design provides the perfect platform for her students to organize their thoughts and it also provides a great study guide for them to look back on.  As a teacher, this could also be used as an informal assessment tool; you may be able to determine what aspects of comprehension and reading you need to focus on more in the classroom to really help your students grasp the key concepts.

Finally, I loved that Karen incorporated humor into her classes every day.  I think it takes a lot of guts for a teacher to be able to laugh at him/herself, especially in front of students.  By adding humor to the mix, I think Karen did herself and her students a favor and created a more light-hearted learning environment that encourages mistakes as an opportunity to learn! At first, I was a little taken aback by her willingness to joke about her students who confused "grinning" with "grinding", but I saw how she was able to make that a learning experience for her other students who might have been having the same issue and still make the students who made the error feel that it was ok.  This just proves how valuable humor can be in the classroom!

Cary Chapters 2 & 3

Chapter Two
I am truly inspired by Lenny's desire to gain more knowledge about his student's backgrounds.  Although it was sparked by the new student, Ka's, arrival, I think it was a really useful teaching strategy to encourage students to learn more about their own ancestry.  By having students learn about their own culture and their journey to America, I think that it creates more of a equal playing field; it allows students to relate to each other in some way which might make an ELL student feel more comfortable.  It also provides a learning experience for Lenny and gives him insight into both Ka and his other student's background.  As a teacher, I think that this is important because it might help you to identify why students are having certain issues.

For example, when I was working with the ELI as a conversation partner, I learned that the Korean student I was talking with typically had problems with forming sentences in English because sentences are broken down to subject-verb-object in English and subject-object-verb in Korean.  This kind of knowledge can be learned through your own research or by assigning students to research specific areas in their own culture.

I also really liked the idea of pairing ELL students with stronger native speaking partners.  It gives students the opportunity to communicate with others and receive feedback from their peers.  Peer partnering can also help students to become more involved in the classroom environment and encourage them to learn to be actively engaged in a low-stress setting.

Chapter Three
This chapter also had a lot of valuable information for helping ELL students to comprehend more in the classroom.  I especially like how Jeff began his unit with something that caught all of his students attention.  The activity wasn't something that required a high level of language comprehension, instead it was an activity that grabbed his students attention and made learners of all language proficiencies want to start the unit.

Throughout the Stone Fox unit, Jeff combined multiple teaching strategies such as read-alouds, movie viewings, and power words to help students understand the story on a more specific level and as a whole.  I also found that the book response journal entries were very useful.  I think that they encouraged the students to really invest in the story which makes it easier for them to be interested in the rest of the lessons.  The power words might not have been as effective if Jeff simply wrote them on the board and didn't require the students to actively use them.  The journal entries are a place where students can synthesize all of the materials that they have been engaged with and it provides a specific place for them to put down their thoughts.  Also, writing about their experiences with the story or how it relates to their life can encourage the students to participate in whole-class discussions because they already have something prepared - it takes away some of the anxiety!

Besides explaining how a multitude of materials can effectively be used in the classroom, I really liked how this chapter addressed the issue of a teacher's personal time.  It made me think about how much planning actually has to go into each lesson in order to ensure that student progress is made.  At the same time, it also made me realize that in order to be an effective teacher, we have to be able to take time for ourselves or else we might get burnt out a little too soon.

Cary Introduction & Chapter 1

Introduction
My first response to the Stephen Cary text, Working with English Language Learners, was that this would be a beneficial resource for me in both my classroom observations and future teaching experiences.  The text is very approachable and clearly identified the different goals to be addressed in the text.  I especially like Cary's personable writing style; I felt as though I was being directly addressed and that the information presented to me was going to be useful.  I don't know how many times I have come across a textbook that could be a valuable resource, but gets pushed aside or unused because of its inability to effectively communicate those ideas.
The introduction addresses a list of ten questions that really help to focus my attention as a reader and future teacher.  The questions address a variety of issues that I may come across when teaching ELL students such as make textbooks more readable, improving writing/reading and supporting a first language. Of these questions, however, I think the most important and neglected issue is how to effectively assess a student's English.  Although I have taken a class on TESOL methodology and testing, I'm still not entirely sure how to use those tools effectively in a classroom to help students reach their potential.
Cary mentioned that "Language acquisition is more a matter of get-this-with-that, than get-this-then-that; it comes in wholes, not pieces" (3).  This really snagged my attention because I think that it poignantly states that, as teachers, we need to recognize that language learning (or any learning in general) can not come in pieces.  I think of learning as a kind of puzzle, you don't get the final picture with just a few pieces.  Instead it requires a combination of all puzzles, just as learning requires a combination, not  succession, of learning and teaching strategies.  By thinking of learning as a holistic process, teachers may be better prepared to help students become more successful in their language acquisition.
Overall, I am truly excited to continue reading this text.  It has so much useful information that is presented in a way that is both easy to comprehend but requires you to think outside of the box.  I think this will be a great asset for me to continue to use throughout my practicum and into my future classroom.

Chapter 1
As I mentioned previously, one of the areas I am most interested in is how to assess my ELL student.  Although I was given many strategies, it still was unclear as to how to implement these in my classroom. I really enjoyed reading Chapter 1 as it focused on Lisa's struggle with assessing her ELL student, Amalia.
As a pre-service teacher, I was kind of shocked that Lisa went around the rules set up by her district to request a later testing date for Amalia.  Honestly, I would have never even thought of doing something like that for one of my ELL students before reading this.  It was amazing how giving Amalia that "break-in" time helped to create a comfortable learning environment for Amalia without giving her the added pressure of performing well on the LAS proficiency test.
By first establishing that her classroom was a safe learning environment (not a testing zone!), I think Lisa really set Amalia up for success.  This semester I am currently taking a level two Spanish course.  It is the first time I have taken Spanish in probably over 4 years and I can definitely relate to Amalia's struggles.  I find it hard to want to speak in class or participate during group work.  If I was faced with a proficiency exam during the first week of class, I would probably be even more reluctant to participate.
In terms of assessing Amalia's progress, I really liked the four-box assessment tool.  I think that it is a great way to easily track what Amalia succeeds in and what she may need more work on.  Although I think it is a good tool for one or two ELL students, it may be difficult to do this on a larger scale.  It is a lot of paperwork to do for more than just a few students and it may be difficult to keep up with. If this method was adapted to maybe a few activities or specific classroom assignments, I think that it could be a really valuable piece of information.