Not For ESOL Teachers: Chapter Analysis

In the book, Teach Like a Champion 2.0 the author states how important building ratio through questioning is. The author breaks down chapter seven into five techniques; each technique has a specific target. Additionally, technique thirty-two is waits time; allow students time to think before answering the questions. If the students are not able to use that time wisely then the teacher must narrate them toward being more productive. Affording students significant periods of thinking after each question a teach ask increases think ratio. Also, they are several benefits of waiting a couple of seconds between questions and answer enabling more students to participate, supporting better answers and increasing the use of evidence within

Emergence into a new culture requires courage, toppled with humiliation. Despite the energy or the will, unfamiliar territory/language and events present unrelenting and unavoidable tensions. Hispanic students encounter teachers who fail to support them in maintaining aspects of their cultural identity. For some ELL students honoring and respecting another’s culture may diminish some of the struggles these students face.

When an educator walks into her classroom for the first time, she needs to be prepared to encounter students that come from a variety of backgrounds. The children will be in different stages of language development, and the educator must accommodate for each of these students. Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa, and Matera (2013) state, “The US Census Bureau projects that by the 2030s, children whose home language is other than English will increase from roughly 22 percent to 40 percent of the school-age population” (p. 9). This increase in second language learners will cause the educator to accommodate for those needs. Second language learners “need teachers who welcome them and recognize their unique abilities, what they know, and what they need to learn” (Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa, and Matera, 2013, p. 10).

I found it interesting that of the three ELL teachers interviewed, only one had a personal ELL experience. This teacher teaches at my middle school. She moved here from Poland when she was nine years old. She didn’t know any English besides basic words like colors

The first student that I conducted the lesson with was a girl I named Shiloh. Shiloh was an eight-year girl that was in the second grade, but would be entering in the third grade in the coming Fall. Her mother explained that she was an ESOL level two student. She was born in America, but both parents are Hispanic. The father is Cuban and the mother is from Venezuela. At home Shiloh’s family mainly communicates in Spanish. Shiloh’s mother explained that she wanted her daughter to speak Spanish at home because she does not want her to not learn Spanish or forget “where she comes from.” As I learned in TSOL I many parents do this this because they do not want their child

On my second visit to the class, I definitely observed major improvement from the ESOL students, especially Mike since he was a brand new student from Haiti when I did my first visit. Mrs. Lundman would definitely use the right modifications to her lesson to accommodate the ESOL students. ESOL students are on the rise every year. According to Alexa Volland, for the Gainesville Sun, describes: “In 2011-12, there were 244,376 ESOL students enrolled in Florida schools, most of them in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward and Hillsborough counties.” That is why it is very important to have the right qualified teachers and resources to help these students coming from other

Teachers must learn about their student’s cultures if they want to educate them to the best of their ability. Many of the students in culturally diverse classrooms will want to learn in different ways. Some will want to learn in pairs, groups, as a class, or just alone. If the teacher is educated in their culture then lessons can be adjusted to appeal to every student as much as possible instead of forcing some to forget about their culture and learn like others. Students from

In educational institutions they ignore certain students by being unaware of students’ funds of knowledge and their truth depth of knowledge. (Rios-Aguilar 164) Students have a wide understanding over a range of topics, but schools maintain a deficit perception of culture when it does not adhere to the dominant education system. If we were to bridge funds of knowledge and capital we would have the potential to have a better insight into students’ opportunities and experience in educational institutions. (Rios-Aguilar 163) Wolfram et a. clarifies how essential it is for students to attend a school that acknowledge distinct cultures and backgrounds, “When schools do not systematically accommodate different language varieties, some group of students do less well in the gate-keeping activates that determine program access, placement, and progress (Wolfram et a. 87) Program (such as AVID, honors, etc.) may have an essential role in college acceptance. Schools should allocate their resources and funding towards equipping teachers with imperative skills and knowledge to teach students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of the qualities of a superior teacher are being academically prepared, knowledgeable about the subject they are teaching, and hold an interest in students’ needs. Having a good teacher is essential to a student’s success. (Watanabe

The introduction to this chapter was an enjoyable read. When reading the introduction, the reader can visualize everything that is happening in their head. The introduction passage is a story of a teacher, Mrs. Firpo, and how she goes about teaching a phonics lesson. There are even examples that the reader can follow along with throughout the introduction as if they were in the actual class watching Mrs. Firpo teach the lesson.

The author that stood out to me the most in the first unit was Gloria Anzaldúa. This is because I had made some personal connections to Anzaldúa’s piece on How to Tame a Wild Tongue. It was interesting to read the struggles of someone who grew up within the U.S. and personally experienced not only a language barrier between those who speak only English but also those of Hispanic descent who speak different types of Spanish dialects. From How to Tame a Wild Tongue Anzaldúa argues about how taking away or making someone conform their native language takes their identity away. In the U.S. we tend to be called a “melting pot” yet we still have a hard time accepting those who differ from ourselves. With English being the primary language in the U.S. many tend to make a causation/correlation relationship. In which is related to “If you live in the U.S. you need to speak only English”, obviously this is not the case. This carries on in our schools nationwide. While the U.S. has been making some changes related to letting children keep their native language and learn English, there still can be some negative stigma related to having a native language other than English. There are two major things I believe the U.S. should improve upon through schools throughout the country. We should not only work on improving the DLLs and ELLs classes, we additionally need to start incorporating various cultural diversity activities during class at younger ages. Children can be quite

Having read ‘Confessions of a Bad Teacher’ by John Owens, I was amazed at the overall condition of the inner city school Latinate that he taught in many different ways. I never observed or went to an inner city school, and I always heard stories from my mom about how teaching in the city is one of the most difficult jobs a person could have. After reading this book, I now believe this statement even more. Mr. Owens had to manage all of the nuances that make up a traditional classroom ranging from having good lesson structure, having a good classroom environment and management, and having good instructional strategies. In addition to fulfilling these big challenges, Mr. Owens also has to deal with numerous cultural differences in the classroom, many additional instructional demands as imposed by the principal Ms. P, and lack of family and community support from families and members of Latinate.

There are many different qualifies a teacher must possess in order to be an effective teacher to all his or her students. Herrera discussed many qualities needed in her first two chapters, in order to be an effective teacher of CLD students or culturally and linguistically diverse students. One of the ways to becoming an effective teacher is understanding theories that relate to learning. Vygotsky’s Zone of proximal development and Krashen’s input hypothesis are critical theories that explain learning and language development. Another important way to become and effective teacher is to understand what students and their family’s circumstances are in order to see what experiences drive their lives. This allows us to have a deeper understanding of our students and draw from their experiences in order to allow student sot make connections to their learning,

Ms. Hernandez is an inspiring teacher with a unique ability to make every single person who enters her classroom feel welcomed and cared for. Ms. Hernandez understands that children are best served by strong connections between their home, their school and their community. Therefore, she makes a conscious effort to make a personal connection to her students and their families in order to foster a caring community. Diversity is celebrated in Ms. Hernandez' dual language classroom, and parents and students are welcomed with open arms and warm hugs. Ms. Hernandez turns classroom challenges into opportunities for growth. She also sees the power of shared intelligence through collaborations in and out of the classroom, and provides students with

Teaching moves Ms. Rodriguez makes to support her multilingual students: She begins with a narrative story about yesterday’s work, She uses a visual cue to remind students of the writing she demonstrated yesterday, She provides a verbal demonstration for her students, modeling English syntax, Her tone is inclusive, and she talks to her students like fellow writers, She writes about a Spanish-language television show that most of her children know and watch, She points to each word and has the children read with her, demonstrating concepts of print that are significant for children learning to read in English, She asks students to turn and talk to their partners, which provides her multilingual student the opportunity to try out their ideas with a partner before speaking to the whole group, She models her writing and writes in Spanish, which validates the majority of her students’ language(s), She checks for understanding, She verbalizes the internal question that children can ask themselves when they complete their writing.

The cultural curriculum of the middle school appears to be a successful one. Students seem to be maximizing their learning outcome which is evident in an increase of passes for all content areas on the annual standardized assessments. A teacher’s role does not resemble the role of a facilitator. Instead, they instruct as a lead guide providing instruction to students who are learning in an unfamiliar culture. Therefore, instructional methods do require for students to stay near a trusted guide, watch the guide’s activities, get involved in the activities when possible, and attend to any instructions the guide provide (Miller, 2011).