Section 14 Chapter 33-35

In all of my education classes, especially my TESOL ones, we talk about alternative assessment and how beneficial it is.  Personally, I feel that if every educator was more informed with different types of alternative assessment, then they would be more open to using them.  I think that not only is alternatice assessment a more personal, engaging, accurate way to assess your students, but it also helps them expand their creativity and is fun.  I feel that traditional assessment forces not only the students, but the teachers as well, into a box and limits them.   As stated on page 339, "alternative assessment actually asks students to show what they can do."  You can't expect one traditional assessment to accurately portray all the abilities of 30-some students that learn and express their knowledge in different formats.  These types of assessment can reveal the true capabilities of students and include daily classroom activities and real life situations.  It goes along the lines of "learning and not knowing that you are learning", which is most authentic. 
There are so many different types of assessments.  One of my personal favorites is the student portfolio.  I like this because it is an suthentic representation of students' achievements.  It shows how a student progresses through the year by showing their pieces at the beginning and at the end.  It is an amazing way for the student to actually see how their writing has improved.  On page 348 it states that "this is a real step toward learner autonomy." And isn;t that what we want as educators? To guide our students along using methods and techniques that suit them and bring out their best qualities until they get to the point where they can shine on their own.

Kuma Ch. 11

In education today, there is a greate amount of debate over whether standardized English should be taught in school.  Kuma brings up the very questions that feed this debate.  How is a high status determined? Who determines it?  How do we define "educated" people?  Is there a right or wrong answer to these questions, it depends on who you ask.  In bilingual education, we are constantly talking about how important it is to incorporate the students' L1 in the classroom because then they feel appreciated and more comfortable.  But at the same time they do need to learn some standard variety "for personal growth and professional opportunitites" (p. 258).  The key is to have some sort of equal balance between the 2 languages/  Unfortunately, with the English Movement, specifically Proposition 227 in California, students are being forced to ignore the most valuable learning resource that they naturally possess: their native language.
As educators, we have a responsibility to help our students excel and shine.  As Kuma states, and I whole-heartedly agree, "the least teachers can do is to recognize the rich linguistic and cultural heritage the learners bring with them and use them as resources" (p. 249)  Studies show that if this is done, students can achieve the standard variety as well as be more involved in the classroom and more motivated.  If the students feel comfortable enough in the classroom setting to use their L1 with fear of judgment, this can do wonders on their progress as English Language Learners.  Students need to feel that their native language and culture is being respected and utilized because every single student has so much to bring to the table of learning; teachers just need to be willing to allow them to do this.  And as Kuma says, this will help them reach their goals for their L2.

Kuma Chapter 7

HUmans as a species take language for granted.  Language is constantly around us and we use it all day every day in our lives.  I feel that students need to be aware of this and appreciate it.  They need to see what a beautiful and complex thing language is, and not just something that they have to learn in class.
A quote on page 157 states "We are seeking to light fires of curiosity about the central human characteristics of language which will blaze throughout our pupils' lives".  This spoke volumes to me and rekindled my own personal flame within myself for my passion of language.  When I first started learning Spanish in middle school, I enjoyed it, but I didn't understand the beauty of it.  I didn't appreciate how learning a second language was not just a grade on a report card, but the door to the experiences and understanding of another culture, people, way of living, a language.  I did not light this flaming passion until high school, and from then on it has soared.  As a future educator, I Know how crucial it is to ensure that students do not wait until high school to be aware of language.  If students realized the potential of a language the way that I did, only at a younger age, imagine the possibilities.  If out students were exposed to the integration of language and curriculum, it is an adrenaline rush to imagine how their own personal critical thinking skills, participation, desire for learning, everything would grow.  Students need to have that awareness of a language in a general and critical sense so that tehy can realize where they stand and learn to question, challenge, learn, and explore.  And isn't that what we want for our students: for them to have that fire of curiosity and the desire to learn more.

Section 11 Chapter 24, 25

While I did enjoy reading these chapters and learned a lot about effective ways to teach vocabulary, I found that a lot of the information was contradictory.  I will discuss this later in the post.

In chapter 24, I was very surprised to learn that there is only a 10% chance of a student learning the meaning of a word through the context (Richards, 259).  After learning this I realized how important it is that the vocabulary be explicitly explained in order for learning to occur, at least in the case of low proficiency learners.  When it comes to vocabulary, I am an avid believer in the quote "practice makes perfect".  From personal experience with my L2 learning process, I know that being repeatedly exposed to a word was very beneficial.  I remember making vocab cards and breaking them into piles of 7 to study them; this strategy helped me temendously and I still use it today.
On page 260, the "beginner's paradox" is mentioned.  this stated the contradiction of how a beginner student is supposed to learn vocabulary through reading, yet they don't know enough words to read well.  I feel that it is necessary to start off with directly teaching the vocab, and then branch off to have the students use other resources such as extensive reading and their own strategies.  When you teach the vocabulary, it is important to not only just show the word, but also to let the students hear the correct pronunciation, practice saying it, and seeing a visual.  Repeated exposure to vocab in a manner like this can help students not only expand their lexicon but also improve their reading fluency.
A strategy I currently use with a 1st grader is sight word flash cards.  I took a list of high frequency words and wrote them on cards.  Every lesson, we add 10 cards to the pile and she reads them aloud.  We then sort them ased on whether she knows them or not.  This has had an amazing effect on her fluency because she no longer hesitates at these certain words. 

A lot of the contradicting information I thought of was in chapter 25.  On page 268, Richards said that the students are more likely to learn more vocabulary if they read a text with which they are not familiar.  In my opinion, if you want a student to actually learn vocabulary, it should be in a context that they have some background knowledge in so they can relate to it.  If they have difficulties with what they are reading, then how are they supposed to learn the vocabulary?

October 17 Blog

Chapter 11 talked a lot about different strategies that language learners use, whether it is conscious or not.  As a language learner, I was able to personally relate to these strategies, and it got me thinking about the strategies that I use myself.  I don't think I actually starting cognitively thinking about which strategies I used until I was in high school.  I would use different strategies to study for exams or projects, and the more I mixed them up, the lower my grades were.  So I played around with different ones until I realized ones that worked best for me.  So once I figured out these strategies, I made sure that I used them as much as possible. I used them not only when I was studying, but when I did assignments, projects, even just participating a lot in class helped my grades go up.  I soon realized that I use a variety of social strategies, and that when I do, my grades are the highest.  I am a very cooperative person and that actually speaking my thoughts out loud help me understand a new concept better.  I thrive on group environments and excel when I can bounce ideas off of my fellow classmates.  After reading all of the strategy categories, I realize how important it is for the students to be consciously aware of all of them not only to benefit their participation and study habits, but to challenge and improve their higher order thinking skills.  As educators, it is our job to not only encourage our students to think outside the box, but to question them and have them question themselves about why they think that way, how they think, and how they can approach learning in different directions.  It is our job as educators to not only teach the students the content materials and lessons, but to also help them learn a little bit about themselves.

Section 10 Ch. 21-23

These sections talked about the importance of listening in a classroom, and how this aspect is greatly overlooked. But recently, "listening is assuming greater and greater importance" (p. 238).  I feel that in every education course I have taken, there is one common theme: interaction in the classroom.  In chapter 21, there was a lot of emphasis on how important it is that the students interact with each other and the teacher.  This is called recirpocal learning, and part of conversing with others is listening.  How can we expect our students to be able to have a conversation with someone if they aren't taught how to listen?  And when I say listen, I don't just mean listen to a tape recording of vocabulary words; I mean having different types of listening activities so that the students are exposed to a variety of situations where they have to listen for different things.  Having learner-centered strategies can greatly help with these activities.  Again, this is another reoccurring theme that I find in  all of my education classes.  I think that we as educators need to focus on what is best for the students, not necessarily what is easiest for us.  I remember from my Spanish courses in high school that most of our listening activities consisted of listening to lectures and tape recordings of a woman speaking in a non-natural voice and speed about nothing that would ever relate to me in real life.  I hated these because although I did understand them, I never really paid much attention to them or took them seriously because I couldn't relate to the examples. 
In chapter 23 on page 249, there was a sentence that said "pause fillers...help the speaker to solicit more time to plan and in turn to furnish the listener with more processing time."  As a second language learner myself, I can personally testify that I love when people take a pause to say "um" in the conversation because it give me as a listener time to focus on what they are saying and process it all, and when I am the speaker, it gives me time to think about what I am going to say next.  I feel that as future educators, we should emphasize to our students that it is okay for them to take pauses and to also take chances when they are speaking.  They will never really learn if they don't take chances and get out of their comfort zone.  Many students are scared of being judged and so it is up to us to create a stress free and safe environment where all feel comfortable to speak, listen, and take risks.

Section 12 Chapter 26

I will be blogging about this specific chapter because I think it was the most interesting to me.  I guess I have never really paid much attention to any of the dilemmas that were listed, or even considered them.  So this chapter really opened my eyes and got me thinking.
The first dilemma is how can reading instruction match with all the different proficiency levels from our students?  This got me wondering and trying to think of ways that my reading instruction methods could reach out to every student, no matter what their level is.  In an ideal world, we would have enough time, resources, and energy to be able to work one on one with every single student to help them reach their full potential.  Unfortunately, this is not possible in L1 instruction, especially in L2.  There is so much more to teach in an L2 classroom, as Dilemma 4 points out.  I never even thought that vocabulary would be such an issue.But the more that I reflected on it, our students are expected to learn just as much as the L1 students, only in a smaller amount of time and they have to learn more information.  Students nowadays are competitive enough as it is, and this just adds more competition to the school environmnent.
In Dilemma 6, this was the most meaningful dilemma to me personally.  It is my personal view that children won't learn, or want to learn, if they are not motivated and don't have some say to an extent on what they are doing in the classroom.  I am teaching reading right now to a first grader, and after every session, I ask her what kind of book she would like to read for next time.  This way, I can find a book that not only matches the goals that I have for her, but it is something that she WANTS to read, so she is excited about it.  I agree with what the text says, in the thought that reading for pleasure is not given priority.  I feel that this is a big issue, but that individual teachers have the power to change it in their own teaching methods.  This can be something as simple as allowing the students to have 15 minutes of free reading a day, where they can choose their own materials to read.  I feel that this could lead into helping with Dilemma 7.
If the students are excited about what they are reading and developing deeper thought processes, then maybe naturally they will turn into more strategic readers.
Obviously, I don't have all the answers to these issues. But I can use them to help influence my teachings and enviornment so that I can provide the best teachings possible for my future students.