Blog #10 Rationale for Homework

Educators have argued over the value and importance of homework for decades.  They have argued over the amount of time students should spend on homework, whether parents should be involved, and at what age homework should start. According Robert Marzano (2007), there are a number of recommendations regarding homework: homework should be structured; amount of time spent on homework should be carefully considered; homework should have a clear purpose that aligns to the learning objectives; students should be able to complete the homework independently; and parents and guardians should be involved in appropriate ways (p. 71). Many of these recommendations resonate in Classroom instruction that work with English language learners. Hill and Flynn (2006) assert the amount of time spent on homework should increase as students get older; parental involvement should be minimal; the purpose of homework should be clearly articulated; and feedback must be given on homework assignments (p. 78-79). Homework for ESL students needs to take other factors in consideration. For example, teachers must consider their language proficiency, access to technology at home, and how much parents or guardians can help (do the parents or guardians have any English skills of their own?).

            In my classroom, I will need to take into consideration my students literacy skills and their access to technology. I strongly believe the way students become better readers is to read, and this will be the focus on my homework routine for students. Students will be expected to read for 30 minutes four days a week. I chose four days because many of my students will be working or responsible for taking care of siblings. I must keep this in mind. Students will have many options for reading materials. Below is a small list of what they can read:

• Novel
• Poetry
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Reading for another class
• Internet sites
• Short stories
• Reading aloud to a sibling or parent

There are many ways for students to engage in reading and I intend on giving students every option available to them. Choice in reading increases student engagement in reading. Students won’t just read though. They will complete a task related to their reading. They will pick one task per week to complete. Each week students have to choose a different task—they cannot chose the same one more than once every nine weeks. This assignment will be due on Monday of the following week. The activities they can choose from are below:

• One pager
• Text Connections graphic organizer (minimum of 4 connections)
• Summarization pyramid
• Marking up the text
• Storybird summary
• Blog Book Talk

This list will grow throughout the year; however, at the start of the school year, it will take some time to familiarize them with the different tasks. The objective of this particular structure is to have my students engage in authentic reading. Rather than my students just reading, they will need to extend their understanding of the text in many different ways. Each of the tasks engages them in their text in a different way: summarizing, making connections, annotating the text, and synthesis.  Each task will have specific feedback from me including the thoughtfulness of their responses, thoroughness of completion, and writing skills (this will used as a way to give feedback on their writing). Technology will play a role in homework. Depending on the task chosen, students will need access to a computer. I will be available to students before and after school in the computer lab to give them access if they need it. Parents and guardians will be informed of this homework policy at the beginning of the year. The will encourage them to read along with their student or have their child read to them. 

Marzano, R. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Hill, J. & Flynn, K. (2006). Classroom instruction that works with English language learners. Alexandria, VA:ASCD.

Blog #9 Non-fiction and Fiction Text

Differentiating between nonfiction and fiction texts is a critical skill all readers need. For English Language Learners, the differences must be clearly illustrated. The list of text features for non-fiction text is much longer than fiction texts. We need to teach ESL students to navigate the complexity of non-fiction texts. Below is a graphic organizer that could be used as a pre-assessment and a post assessment. I would also have students create a resource (either using technology or a different way) that illustrates the differences between the two texts. I could even see students working in groups to create examples of fiction and non-fiction texts.
These are the differences I would teach students:


Narrative

• character
• setting
• problem
• events
• solution
• story elements
• chronological text structure 

Expository:

• different text structures
• categorization
• alphabetical
• process
• clarification
• cyclical
• cause/effect
• question/answer
• table of contents
• glossary
• headings
• pictures/captions
• diagrams
• artifacts
• pictures and photographs
• maps
• graphs

I often have bold print, a glossary, or an index. Who am I?	I usually have colorful illustrations instead of photographs. Who am I?
I have to be read beginning to end if you want my story to make sense. Who am I?	If you want real information on a topic, I’m the one you need. Who am I?
You can often find fun features like maps, graphs, captions, or diagrams on my pages. Who am I?	I do not have a table of contents, index, or glossary. Who am I?
I often have a main character or two, a setting, a sequence of events, and problem to solve. Who am I?	My story is pretend and written for fun. Who am I?
I usually have photographs instead of drawings. Who am I?	My story is non-fiction and you do not have to read me from beginning to end for my story to make sense. Instead, you can use my table of contents or my index to get the exact information you are looking for. Who am I?

Blog #8 Sheltered Instruction Observation

This video on sheltered instruction solidified by belief that sheltered instruction is good teaching. While there are minor differences that need to be taken into consideration for ESL students, overall, sheltered instruction incorporates best teaching practices. As I watched the videos, I noticed the following strategies the teacher used:

• reviewed expectations and objectives for the lesson
• modeled directions 3-ways: verbally, written, and demonstrated
• frontloaded vocabulary with visuals and synonyms
• modeled metacognitive strategies
• increased wait time
• culturally relevant content
• Post-it note strategy

Overall, unless I just saw the teacher teaching, without Dr. Grassi pointing out what the teacher was doing, I would have assumed this lesson was just another lesson. The diary board is a great strategy and I think there are a couple of ways the teacher could make the strategy even stronger. If the teacher divided the students into groups and each group had their own diary board, it would engage the students in working collaboratively and use language in an authentic setting. I would have liked to see more student talk; while I understand the need to model and demonstrate, I feel the students could have been engaged more by talking about the text (I realize we may not have seen the end of the lesson where the students share their post-it notes). I really like the post-it strategy and in the upcoming school year I intend to use when we read novels. It's a great way to interact with the text; it is also sheltered because the student can use a simple graphic representation to show confusion, visualization, excitement etc. Unlike a dialectical journal which requires complex written skills, this strategy can be done first and then working in pairs, students can formulate a written entry into a dialectical journal.

I enjoyed how the teacher modeled reading strategies and her metacognition. Too often students may not understand how to use different reading strategies but when the strategy is explicitly explained and demonstrated, all students can comprehend it. Metacognition is a powerful strategy but also a challenging on for all students, especially ESL students. Imagine reading a text in a language you are not proficient in and then attempting to think about the text in that language or translating your thoughts into English. The text, Esperanza Rising, clearly shows the teacher respecting the variety of cultures in her classroom. I am a huge advocate of incorporating literature from a variety of countries and authors. Our classrooms are diverse but sometimes our curriculum (especially literature) focuses on writes who are male and white. There are wonderful authors who come from all over the world and all students need to be exposed to the variety of writers out there. By including diversity in the curriculum, students see we value them for who they are and we are not trying to assimilate them into the dominate American culture.

Blog #7 Running Record

I conducted a running record on 2 second grade students: one who speaks Spanish and the other student speaks Albanian. The text I chose was a non-fiction text about earthquakes. This was not their first exposure to the text but it had been a few weeks since we read it last. The Spanish-speaking student had 85% accuracy. Many of his errors were meaning miscues. He also had many visual miscues. For example, he said "planet" for "plate" because the first time the word came up there was a picture of planet Earth on the same page. He also had some miscues that I couldn't figure out: "coved" for "covered"; "pressers" for "pressure". He struggled with decoding words and for having read the text twice already, you would've never guessed he had. He also made some words more conversational rather than adhering to the academic language of the text. For example, he said "can't" for "cannot". This student also keeps mixing up sight words. For example, he says "and" for "the" and "even" for "when". I would continue developing this student's sight word vocabulary and continue reinforcing his decoding skills. According to the reading program ECAR, he is still in decoding 1/2; he should be in the comprehension stage, especially going into 3rd grade next year. I would go back and review his phonemic awareness skills and administer the CORE phonics survey to see where his phonemic awareness skills are.

My other student had a 92% accuracy. Many of her errors were meaning miscues. For example, she said "shows" for "show" and "can't" for "cannot". I have a book called Learner English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems and it's a resource for teachers to determine how their L1 affects the mistakes they make in L2. Next steps with her would be introduced root words and common prefixes because she had difficulty with words that could be broken down into syllables: designed, detect, and seismograph. I would conduct another running record with a more challenging text to find her independent reading level-I do wonder if this text was almost too easy. I would continue to build her fluency. One way I would do this is to read a more challenging text and read it with her, sitting behind her.

The two articles I found were Retrospective miscue analysis with proficient adult ESL readers and Miscues: Meaningful assessment aids instruction. The first article explored miscue analysis review with the reader. The study conducted recorded readers reading and they analyzed their own miscues with a researcher to guide their conversation. The readers were proficient adults ESL readers; however, all three noted how they made meaning from semantic and syntatic clues and following this study they were able to make deeper meaning of the text. I found it fascinating to have the reader analyze their own miscues because understanding their own errors only deepens their understanding of reading. I would love to try this out with my high school ESL students in my new school this fall! I'm not sure how it would work with younger students. The second article focused on running records and miscue analysis as meaningful assessment. The students were all deaf and the teachers had difficulty determining their skills based on state assessments. They turned to miscue analysis has a meaningful way to assess their students' skills. Sometimes as educators we wonder how we can use state assessments in our classroom; at the same time, it's nice to know there are meaningful assessments and I believe this is one of them. As this was my first time conducting running records, the information I learned about my students and their reading was tremendous. I can easily apply this to NEP students at my next job!


Bibliography:
Luft, P. (2009). Miscues: Meaningful assessment aids instruction. Odyssey, 7-11.
Swan, M. & Smith, B. (Eds). (2001). Learner english: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge, MA: University Press.
Wurr, A., Theurer, J., &Kim, Koomi. (2008). Retrospective miscue analysis with proficient adult ESL readers. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 52, 324-333.

Blog #6 Freeman and Freeman Activity

Student Activities: Learning or Acquisition

Look up words in the dictionary to write definitions

Make a Venn diagram to compare two stories

Practice sounding out words

Read in round-robin fashion

Correct peers when they make a mistake during reading

Identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound

Group cards with classmates' names by a criterion on such as first or last letter

Write rhyming poetry and then discuss different spellings for the same sound

Ask the teacher how to spell any word they don't know

Read a language experience story they have created with the teacher

Work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences

Divide words into syllables

On a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the same sound

Make alphabet books on different topics

The student activities in red support the goal of learning to read: identifying words to get to the meaning of a text (Freeman D. & Freeman Y, 2004, p. 25). One way students learn to new words is to use a dictionary to identify their meaning, rather than context clues from the text. Round-robin reading is a quick and easy way for both the teacher and students to "correct" the student reading. The word recognition view of reading supports students breaking words into its syllables and using the teacher as a resource for spelling. 

The student activities in green support the acquisition of reading: using background knowledge and cues from 3 language systems to construct meaning from a text (Freeman D. & Freeman, Y, 2004, p. 25). Each of these activities requires students to use 3 different cueing systems to construct meaning from the text. For example, identifying words with the same sound and grouping classmates' names require students to use graphophonics. Drawing a line from the picture to a word with the same sound requires students to use their knowledge of semantics and graphophonics. 

Teacher Activities: Learning or Acquisition

Preteaches vocabulary

Does a shared reading with a big book

Makes sure that students read only books that fit their level

Has students segment words into phonemes

Writes words the students dictate for a story and has students help with the spelling of difficult words

Asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter

Uses decodable texts

Sets aside time for SSR each day

Teaches Latin and Greek roots

Has students meet in literature circles

Conducts phonics drills

Chooses predictable texts

Teaches students different comprehension strategies

Does a picture walk of a new book

Uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills   

The teacher activities in read support the word recognition view of reading. As Freeman and Freeman write "[teachers] attempt to help students with words that many of them might not know so that when they encounter those words during reading they will be able to recognize them" (2004, p. 28). Many of the activities above are teacher-centered and help student develop vocabulary through word recognition. For example, phonics is a large piece to learning vocabulary. Another example is preteaching vocabulary. Teachers give students the words they must know to construct meaning of a text. 

The teaching activities in green support the acquisition of reading because the activities provide students opportunities for extensive reading to learn vocabulary and construct meaning (2004, p. 28). Learning comprehension strategies allows students to construct meaning on their own as they navigate a variety of texts. Meeting in literature circles allows students to apply these skills and learn from their peers. Teachers guide students in developing comprehension strategies to use during silent reading.  Students are expected to read a variety of texts to increase their vocabulary and understanding of reading. 

Blog #5 Children's Books and Cultural Bias

I chose two books for elementary students in grades 3-5: Math Curse and Just A Dream.

Some of the topics that might prove challenging for ESL students in Just A Dream include concepts of science fiction, flying, recycling, and the future. I would build ESL students' schema using a variety of strategies. Students would participate in a picture walk and look at a variety of pictures that relate to each of these topics. Students would write responses based on the pictures they saw; their responses could be in their first language or they would have a partner who could help them translate. I would find 2-3 60 sec video clips that show "the future" and concepts of science fiction. I would provide students with a word wall with pictures and ask them to write down the words they see in the video clips. I would build vocabulary for this book. The words would include dream, robot, recycle, future, environment, planet, and pollution. I would use Robert Marzano's 6 steps to effective vocabulary instruction to introduce vocabulary (Marzano, 2004, p.91-103).  (I will post the 6 steps below) This book is a great cross-curricular text for students and would provide students with many real-world knowledge and experience.

For the text Math Curse, some topics that might prove challenging for ESL students include classroom setting, getting ready for school, school routines, and concepts of curses. While this text is a fun and engaging way to discuss math, it also has different concepts of routines that some students may not be familiar with. In order to build students' schema, they would conduct picture walks of different routines. I would guide them through identifying similarities and differences in different types of routine. I would build their vocabulary, focusing on routine, problem, and curse. I would modify this if I were an elementary teacher and include math terms related to math topic being learned. Lastly, I would give the students a virtual reading experience. In Robert Marzano's book Building background knowledge for academic achievement (2004), he introduces the concept of virtual experiences. One way we build schema is through our experiences; however, many ESL students do not share similar experiences because of their cultural (ie; a student who comes from an African country has little understanding of mass transportation) experiences. Marzano suggests building virtual experiences through reading, language interaction, and educational videos (p. 36-40). I would find a short passage on being in a school that has rich descriptive language and read it out loud with students. As I read, there would a word wall with vocabulary words from the passage and visuals to help make the reading comprehensible.

Marzano, R. (2004). Building background knowledge for academic achievement. Alexandra, VA:   ASCD.

Blog #4 Comprehending a Text in Another Language

The text I chose was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I chose this book because I've read in English and thought this might help as I read. While I already had a summary in my head in English, it only helped me to understand the text a little. I was able to recognize cognates (words that look and mean the same in Spanish and English). I struggled through the text, I decided to try my hand at a newspaper or magazine in Spanish. This reading was easier for me to comprehend and the visual made the text more comprehensible. 

Here is a list of strategies I would use to make content comprehensible:
*provide a summary of the reading in the student's native language (if possible)
*use visual cues or realia
*teach students to recognize cognates (this works for romance languages, ie; Spanish, French, Italian-it becomes a challenge for students of non-Roman languages)
*Adapt the text by simplifying the language

As an ESL teacher it would be more challenging to help a student make meaning from a text and not know anything about their language. For example, last year I had a 17-year old girl come from China. Chinese and English are very different languages, not only in origin but one is alphabetic and one is not. While she had a lot of background knowledge, I needed to use a lot visuals and realia to support her comprehension. It helped that she had some knowledge of English but not enough that she didn't need support.

Blog #1 Relationship between oral language and reading process

The relationship between oral language and the reading process is complex. A proficient reader must be proficient with their oral language and vice versa. Too many students, both second-language learners and English-speaking students are not proficient in either. Students acquire language before being able to read. After reading the first chapter in Essential Linguistics it reaffirmed my belief that learning a language the first time is almost innate. Chomsky's LAD (language acquisition device) provides the foundation that we pick up on language from the beginning. As teachers of English-speaking students, our responsibility lies in helping students identify the many different registers of language. We also need to support ESL students while they learn and navigate through the complexity of the English language. While some districts have newcomer programs, many ESL students are put directly into mainstream classrooms and have one ESL teacher they might see during the day.  On the other hand, teachers must teach all students to read. While some pick up on the skills easier than others, we are responsible for teaching reading to our students. If students cannot read the language of the text, how can they communicate to us what they learned, what questions they have, what they found interesting, etc. Just like students need to think about their language, students to think about their reading. While I can't say how I read, I can tell you how I make meaning from text, including text connections, using a variety of reading strategies, and more.

We need to be conscientious of the different spoken registers just as we read different material for different purposes. I read the texts for my graduate classes to learn and become a more effective teacher. I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for pleasure. Just as I talk to colleagues differently than I talk to my friends than to my parents and my husband. Oral language and the reading process while different modalities of communication in English, you really can't have one without the other. In order to comprehend what you read, you have a dialogue with yourself or with peers, which requires using oral language.

Writing Instruction Reflection

Reflecting back on the writing instruction I received, it's difficult for me to say whether it was more progressive or "empty vessel". In third grade I wrote a story; in fifth grade I remember finding vocabulary words out of The Witch of Blackbird Pond; in middle school I read The Pearl; in high school I read Shakespeare, William Faulkner, and many other classics. I struggled to identify the larger picture when I wrote essays. I still struggle today. I don't remember explicit instruction or modeling of the writing process but I'm sure I learned it.

I received a lot of one-on-one instruction during college as an English major. As I wrote essays, I became stronger at writing. The parts I struggled with I actually make sure my students understand. It was challenging for me to grasp active voice in writing so I now make sure my high school students write in active voice.

I teach my students writing through modeling, guided practice, and explicit instruction. Many of my students can write but overall they benefit from more direct instruction in certain areas. I also use the 6+1 Traits. This breaks down the major components of writing for students and we can work on certain skills in relation to different genres. I've noticed with my ESL students many of them lack writing skills in English. Writing is one of the last skills ESL students develop but probably one of the most important that they need to be successful in school and the world. Many of my students rely on someone else to help them develop their ideas. The 6+1 traits rubric is a great tool for ESL students because it breaks down each part of writing and they can focus on the particular skill.

Conversation on Literacy

I talked to one of our English teachers who used to serve as a reading teacher. As we discussed literacy, he noted teaching literacy at high school is very different from literacy in elementary school. When he taught reading, he focused more on vocabulary development and comprehension. Many of his students were 3 or more years behind grade level and many were second language learners. There is not a explicit way to identify students who are below grade level in reading at my high school. Teachers use CSAP and MAP testing but many students do not take MAP testing seriously and we have kids who perform poorly even though they are on grade level. He pointed out his use of reading out loud in secondary classrooms. Many would argue against this practice, saying students should be silent reading; however, I agree with  the decision to continue read ing out loud in the classroom. Students need to continually build their fluency, even into high school.

Sometimes I feel English teachers at the secondary level forget about literacy skills. Too often we as teachers assume students in middle school and high school already have "literacy skills". This is not the case! Not only should English teachers reinforce literacy skills, but all content area teachers. Literacy does equal English. All teachers need to use comprehension strategies, develop vocabulary, practice fluency, incorporate writing, and provide time for language development. Students need to talk about equivalent fractions and how to make equations.