Dear whoever is viewing this,
This week in my EDU220 class, I have learned an more than I can explain about important second language acquisition theories by Krashen and Cummins. Both are major influences on the education system and the way kids are taught today and have everything to do with how we should teach
Beginning with my teacher.... she makes content meaningful by using the BICs found in Cummins theories. With her ELL students in particular, she depends heavily on their social learning and "playground" vocabulary in order to further explain academic terminology. It also builds a sort of invisible ladder for each student because she lets them speak and write in a improper manner at first because "everyone has to start somewhere, and at least they are starting" she says. However,(especially now that it is their 4th quarter), she expects them to sit up straight and speak to her with the academic vocabulary they've learned through out the year. She has high expectations for each of her students because all though they may struggle in one area, I've found that they are absolutely brilliant in another area. She really makes content meaningful by really pulling from their background knowledge and personal experiences along with using cloze notes, working definitions, visual depictions, etc. while using their academic language. My teacher ultimately mixes BICs and CALP instead of just focusing on one area. This was most noticeable for me during her math lesson because at first she started off explaining adding and subtracting fractions with the academic jargon: denominator, numerator, etc. She then gave them a worksheet (image above), wrote and example of her solving it on the board and told each student to try solving #1. She set a timer (giving them a wait-time) of 20 minutes. After the timer went off she asked everyone if they felt good about their answer. When more than half of the class shook their heads no she went back down to BICs and used the playground communication level of language so that they could better understand what she was saying. For example, the denominator became the bottom number and common denominators became the same number on the bottom. She still referred back to the academic terms through out the entire worksheet however, so that the students wouldn't forget nor lack the skill of adding and subtracting fractions in future math classes.
Furthermore, the students were insanely frustrated at first. When she was going through an example step by step asking the class what happens next they all understood. However, when she gave them 20 minutes to work on a problem on their own - half of the class gave up and one the students cried because he couldn't get the right answer. When she was speaking to them, they remained engaged the entire time, it wasn't until they were set free to do an individual lesson they were stumped because collectivism (if I've learned anything) is quite helpful for all students. One of the brightest kids in the class and one of the lower kids were both equally confused and frustrated because they mixed up a couple steps. One of the students was so frustrated he cried and the teacher calmed him down and the rest were just continuously asking for help. 3 of the students actually looked up graphing calculators and got in trouble since a calculator was not necessary. I know she has a large class size so going around to every student asking if they understood it isn't the most efficient or plausible process for her.. BUT she could use white boards to get a quick examination at who knows what, she could give them all an exit ticket, group them according to who knows what... there's so many different ways she could teach these tougher subjects...
A strategy I would recommend is group work because math problems can be solved in multiple ways and if the students could have worked together on this assignment, then more of them would have been successful rather than upset. She also got very frustrated and yelled at some of the gifted students. She expected they knew this material and just weren't doing it, but really they had forgotten a step that she had done previously. Another tool I would recommend is a "road map" of fractions. Or a graphic organizer on the steps to add and subtract fractions with multiple different examples. I think this could help the students, especially CLD students, tremendously because it will gives them clean and precise notes to fall back on when they get lost.
I surprised by how much the students looked at me for help. She let me go around and individually help each student with the different problems they were confused about and they really and deeply listened to every single one of the steps I gave them. I was excited because I made a little arrow key for them about how to make improper fractions and it really clicked in their minds and when I would go and help another student with a problem, I would look over and see them drawing the arrows that I once did. In regards to making content meaningful, I feel like I have an idea on how you can teach CLDs and useful tips to help me eventually get to the level in which I can teach them - but I'm really not ready yet. I feel like an underprepared teacher is the root of all problems when their students begin to fail and I refuse to set myself up for failure.What I am learning and experiencing has influenced my future practice tremendously. I have learned that yelling pretty much gets you nowhere, a students trust is so important, and that when students are stumped, you as the teacher really need to rethink the lesson right then and there. Also, it made me realize I never want to teach math again because they teach math so insanely different than how I once learned it!!!!!
Me
Beginning with my teacher.... she makes content meaningful by using the BICs found in Cummins theories. With her ELL students in particular, she depends heavily on their social learning and "playground" vocabulary in order to further explain academic terminology. It also builds a sort of invisible ladder for each student because she lets them speak and write in a improper manner at first because "everyone has to start somewhere, and at least they are starting" she says. However,(especially now that it is their 4th quarter), she expects them to sit up straight and speak to her with the academic vocabulary they've learned through out the year. She has high expectations for each of her students because all though they may struggle in one area, I've found that they are absolutely brilliant in another area. She really makes content meaningful by really pulling from their background knowledge and personal experiences along with using cloze notes, working definitions, visual depictions, etc. while using their academic language. My teacher ultimately mixes BICs and CALP instead of just focusing on one area. This was most noticeable for me during her math lesson because at first she started off explaining adding and subtracting fractions with the academic jargon: denominator, numerator, etc. She then gave them a worksheet (image above), wrote and example of her solving it on the board and told each student to try solving #1. She set a timer (giving them a wait-time) of 20 minutes. After the timer went off she asked everyone if they felt good about their answer. When more than half of the class shook their heads no she went back down to BICs and used the playground communication level of language so that they could better understand what she was saying. For example, the denominator became the bottom number and common denominators became the same number on the bottom. She still referred back to the academic terms through out the entire worksheet however, so that the students wouldn't forget nor lack the skill of adding and subtracting fractions in future math classes.Furthermore, the students were insanely frustrated at first. When she was going through an example step by step asking the class what happens next they all understood. However, when she gave them 20 minutes to work on a problem on their own - half of the class gave up and one the students cried because he couldn't get the right answer. When she was speaking to them, they remained engaged the entire time, it wasn't until they were set free to do an individual lesson they were stumped because collectivism (if I've learned anything) is quite helpful for all students. One of the brightest kids in the class and one of the lower kids were both equally confused and frustrated because they mixed up a couple steps. One of the students was so frustrated he cried and the teacher calmed him down and the rest were just continuously asking for help. 3 of the students actually looked up graphing calculators and got in trouble since a calculator was not necessary. I know she has a large class size so going around to every student asking if they understood it isn't the most efficient or plausible process for her.. BUT she could use white boards to get a quick examination at who knows what, she could give them all an exit ticket, group them according to who knows what... there's so many different ways she could teach these tougher subjects...
I can connect this to because it falls back on the affective filter hypothesis from Krashen. Once the students got upset and frustrated, it was over and there was no calming down the students or convincing them that math is necessary. I can relate this to the Titanic example done in class because when my teacher at first flew through the story about the Titanic, half of us had question marks on our white boards. This also can tie into the silent period because the ELL students remained completely out of any answers and questions; content isn't meaningful if they can't understand it. As important as academic language is, it's okay to help the students along the way.
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