BE5013 Foundations of ESL and Bilingual Education
Journal Entry One: Cultural and Linguistic Awareness
This course, Foundations of ESL and Bilingual Education has helped me become aware of my own Bilingual Education biases. This awareness helps me become a better ESOL teacher by eliminating those biases. I will focus on helping my students become successful in school and as future contributors in our society. The presentations are very informative, and I will review these materials as I continue to grow in my ESOL career. The readings are also relevant to the course, and they helped me understand the different models that I can use in my ESOL classroom. The first presentation on Module 5 surprised me when I learned that 42 percent of public school students were ethnic minorities. It shows that we are living in a very diverse community. National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel (2008) mentioned that there are few factors why educators need to be more culturally competent in order to be effective teacher, and meet the needs of a culturally diverse students.
Journal Entry Two: Research and Assignments
I think the article, “Promoting Latino Student Achievement and Development through the ASCA National Model” is the most beneficial to me as an ESOL teacher. This article talks a lot about the Latino students who are the majority of the ESOL population. This article stated that Latino culture and history will give the Latino students a source of pride (Villalba, Akos, Keeter, & Arnes, 2007). This helps me realized how important it is to incorporate my students cultural background in planning my lessons. This article also discussed the difference between Social English and Academic English. As an ESOL teacher, it is very important for me to understand these two language abilities don’t develop at the same time. This would help me find more engaging activities to support the academic needs of my students, and avoid jumping to conclusion that these students have special needs. I think many teachers confused the social language with academic language, and therefore referred students to the special education department. I will not be one of those teachers who is quick to conclude that a student with low Academic English has special needs.
Journal Entry Three: Analysis and Application
I think that the application assignment in Module 1 was most beneficial to me. It was the analysis of the current English Language Program at the district where I am currently working. The ESOL Department trained new teachers on testing to screen ESOL students, and about teaching strategies using Kagan Communicative approach. The assignment gave me the opportunity to research from the district’s website about the ESOL program that we are using. I admit that we don’t have the most effective model to meet the needs of our bilingual students. However, the other lessons from the other modules helped me realized that I can still use the county’s model, and become effective ESOL educator by being aware of my students cultural backgrounds and incorporating them in my lessons. The assignment also made me realized that the district is trying to produce a monolingual speakers by speeding up the ELLs’ English ability so they can be in the mainstream classroom. I can still help my students maintain their home language by encouraging them to use it at home. I believe in Rosoff’s statement, "The idea of having no native language worries me. Would you feel like a nomad inside your own head? I cannot imagine having no words that are home. A language orphan." I don’t want my students to be a language orphan.
References
Levitan, J. (2015, May). Bilingual Students Need Support in Their Native Language
Retrieved from URL
Van Roekel, D. (2008). Promoting Educators’ Cultural Competence To Better Serve Culturally
Diverse Students. Retrieved from URL
Villalba, Jos A;Akos, Patrick;Keeter, Kara;Arnes, Abigail. (2007). Promoting Latino Student
Achievement and Development Through the ASCA National Model.
ProQuest Education Journals, 10, 5. DE (Diverse Learners)
Abstract
This journal entry shows what I have learned in this course, and how to apply these learnings in my professional life. I have learned different teaching strategies that are beneficial in order for me to support the success of all my students. Our school is a perfect example of an institution with a very diverse student population. As a teacher, I feel the need to educate myself in order to an effective and culturally responsive teacher. Richards, Brown and Ford (2007) mentioned that there are more and more students from diverse backgrounds in today’s classrooms. In is imperative that teachers are equipped with knowledge and skills necessary to educate students from varying culture, language, abilities and other characteristics. I also believe that students learn better when they are able to connect their own cultural background.
It is my hope that I can apply the theories that I learned from this course. I enjoyed interacting with my fellow students, and I learned different ideas from our discussion. This course has brought new perspective in teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) using differentiation, and other strategies for multicultural education. I believe that all these things that I learned from the presentations and readings will help me become a culturally responsive teacher. This reflection will function as my reference in implementing a differentiated classroom environment.
Journal Entry One: A Reflection of the Analysis
This course, Diverse Learners has helped me become aware of my personal characteristics that make me a diverse person. As I reflected on those personal characteristics, I realized that the way I learn is very different from the way my students learn because we come from different cultural background with different needs and experiences. As a teacher, it is important for me to consider my students’ learning styles and their cultural background in order for them to succeed in learning. I also learned that my students are from different cultural background, economic status with different learning styles. Diversity matters because our country is becoming a melting pot of different people from the different parts of the world. Richards et al. (2007) mentioned that our classrooms are now filled with students who have different cultural background, languages, abilities and other characteristics that make them diverse. Learning about differentiation is also helpful, since I am now able to differentiate my lessons based on my students’ learning styles, cultural background and abilities which makes it easier for them to digest information.
Journal Entry Two: A Reflection of the Application
The research, "A Framework for Differentiating Classroom Instruction," is most beneficial to me as an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher. The subject of this study is very similar to the students at our school. Our school is also a high-poverty school and I also find it very challenging to teach ESOL classes from Kindergarten to fifth grade with different abilities and language background. With the knowledge in differentiating instruction, I am able to ensure that each student in my class learns by matching student's readiness level, interest, and preferred mode of learning (Rock, M.L., Gregg, M., Ellis, E., & Gable R. A., 2008). There are many things that are new to me as an ESOL teacher here in the United States. My teaching experiences in Philippines and China are different since the schools that I worked with didn’t emphasize differentiation. I am now applying my learning in this course using my students’ abilities based the results of our classroom assessments, and the results of the state’s standardized tests.
culturally competent in order to be effective teacher, and meet the needs of a culturally diverse students.
Journal Entry Three: A Reflection of the Application
I am very fortunate to have a school environment that supports diversity. I also feel lucky that I took this course since I learned more specific ways on how to support our diverse student population. Our school leaders are always on top when it comes to creating a welcoming environment that honors diversity. We have programs that assist students with special needs, English Language Learners, and for students with different abilities. I can apply different strategies that I learned from differentiation, and the Universal Design of Learning (UDL) to create a classroom that welcomes diversity. For example, I can use different materials in presenting my lessons, and provide different ways for my students to show learning. For students who are auditory learners, I can use recorded stories and websites such as Youtube and Brainpop to present new concepts. For my psychomotor learners, I can use Total Physical Response activities when discussing concepts that are hard to remember such as verbs and adverbs. I can have my students show their learning my presenting a short role play, poster, song, poem, or a video presentation. By using UDL strategies, my students are able to both access and comprehend concepts and express their learning in different ways (Kumar & Wideman, 2014).
References
Kumar, K. L., & Wideman, M. (2014). Accessible by design: Applying UDL
Principles in a first year undergraduate course. Canadian Journal of Higher Education,
44, 1, 125-147.
Richards, H. V., Brown, A. F., & Ford, B. T. (2007). Addressing Diversity in Schools: Culturally
Responsive Pedagogy, ProQuest Education Journals, 39, 3, 64.
Rock, M.L., Gregg, M., Ellis, E., & Gable R. A., (2008). A Framework for Differentiating
Classroom Instruction. Heldref Publications, 52, 2, 31-47.
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