As most of you know I have the last edition of the HDB book. Well this time chapter 23 is not on the topic we are to read, in fact that topic is not evident in the book. This is a bit frustrating. Until now this book has been very effective, and useful. The changes haven't been blocking my understanding of the concepts, some examples have been different, but it's compatible.

Anyway, since I was behind in my blogging I wanted to catch up. I'll blog on content after class tonight.

I missed class last week because of a migraine. This makes writing about class impossible. Instead I'll tell you about what I was thinking about.

A couple weeks ago we viewed a clip of a teacher doing a lesson on banking. Many of us said that the lesson went on too long. However, research tells us that we need to change activities with a frequency that correlates to their age. The basic formula is 1 minute per year and this can be stretched by a minute or two over their age. The lesson we viewed was only a ten minute clip of a longer lesson. This is not technically going over the limit. I think our problem was that by not being in the room we missed out on a lot of what was going on. Also the video was edited so how long was the lesson actually?

Just something that's been bothering me. Most 12-18 year olds can handle lessons of 20 minutes before a change. Why was that 10 minute lesson for adults not so successful to us?

Teaching Styles

Somehow I feel like I've kind of lost my identity. I've had so much Brain Based Learning shoved down my throat that I'm really no longer sure where I've come from.

Brain based learning explains why people need the different styles and why some of them work and some don't. This was so loved by one of our superintendents that every teacher in the district owns a copy of Teaching with the Brain in Mind. Then we had study groups on the readings. I didn't go.

As Jody said in her blog we often answer the questions about learning styles with comments about "except when." Overall we really do have tendencies, there will always be exceptions. That's what makes them rules.

Class Week 12

The most memorable thing from class was the 3/4 student from the recipe. The visual image of that is still funny.

This is my 3rd or 4th methods class over the years. I've had methods of theater, of speech, and of English prior to this. In the past 20 years things really haven't changed. I continue to wonder about the purpose. There are very few things that are different in the areas I've learned about. It makes me think that there has to be a better way. Why are so many professors forced to teach virtually the same class? Could this be rotated so that departments can offer other topics? In talking with other teachers, teaching longer than I have, their theories and methods were similar as well. The biggest changes come in what new policy is being recycled currently. Nothing that is new will last long enough to truly prove it is a good way of teaching. Things take time to train and implement and are taken out before this happens.

More time should be spent in the classroom. There should be laws for licensing that are different than they are now. MN teachers used to get a 2 year provisional license and when they got their first teaching contract they could then get a 5 year license, with additional training. Now teachers go immediately to a 5 year license, whether or not they've had a job or training in current research in their field. I believe no teacher should be able to get their own classroom on their first license until they've done a year of subbing. Student teaching and all the practicums before that do nothing to truly train someone for a classroom. Substitute teaching takes away the safety net of having someone check on your plans. You get to test drive someone else's plans and decide which things work and don't work for you. I've worked with many student teachers from the MSU English/Speech departments and only 2 of them were prepared to teach in the high schools. And only one of them would I consider truly ready to take it all on, the other is currently a successful teacher and I'm very proud of her. The rest of them have jobs and I pray for the education of their students. They did not get the course work they need to teach English in the high schools. Of course this has nothing to do with ESL, but I was on a roll.

Reading

Peanut Butter chapter 3

I found much of this so basic! For example, in the science lesson they have 7 techniques.
1. Org. around cognitively demanding content--in a science lesson should they just say this is an owl? No, in order to teach science it should be cognitively demanding. The book implied that it would be a carefully thought out plan to teach about owls...it probably fit in the curriculum.
2. Explanation of purpose and attention to understand what is to be done.
If any teacher did not explain why they were teaching something (to the students) and make sure that the S understood; then they should not be allowed in front of a class without a supervisor.
3. Building background-um...really? Museums, stories, movies...they all lead to teaching. If you jump into the technical parts there will be little learning.
4. Careful use of instructional lang (repitition and definition)-OK-more often in an L2 situation, and with younger learners. But one should never use a lot of new vocabulary without helping students understand it.
5. Acting out/paraphrasing-again, I maintain that an instructor who does not do this should never teach!
6. Use of direct experience-in a science class this is great. Many people learn better from hands on. This is more difficult in a class focusing on non-tangibles (literature, psychology, philosophy) but good teachers jump at the opportunity.
7. opportunities for students to help through cooperative group work-duh...the things we know best we've taught to someone else. On the other side, sometimes an explanation from a peer sinks in better than the "all knowing teacher." The key is not to be afraid to let students work in groups.


It was interesting to suggest implementing group work slowly. I would think that if it is part of the class from the beginning students would accept it. Also, with migrant populations would you have to start over every time a new student came in? You'd never get to really use groups. Every time groups are used it's really the first time, because the goal is different. If a teacher is circulating they can hear if the groups are on task, understanding, have the same confusion etc.

Thematic learning seems the most natural. I'd imagine giving students more input (as in a cycle) is difficult. Teachers are so bound to the standards from the government that they have a hard time seeing the freedom they have. To let students help choose what to learn may be difficult for some to see how to reach the standards without having complete control.

I find it difficult to express scaffolding. Because the lessons build on each other it seems redundant to explain how they build. It is obvious.

I think it is important to remember that culture can affect assessment.

In the reading it talked about natural and instructional settings. We've talked in many of my classes about the need to be as natural as possible in the lessons we present. In the chapter I noticed that a natural setting doesn't have direct instruction of the L2. I would think this would be really difficult to learn. I like to have direct instruction to get the basics. I would expect there would be many things that are too complex to understand that way. I think the repetition in a class dedicated to language learning is essential.

Class Week 11

My attention was divided because of the choir concert. We had an interesting conversation about what it means to be a licensure student. We didn't actually come to any final conclusions but Jodi, Mitch, Brian and I had some interesting ideas. We determined that we were unaware that there were different requirements for those who are already licensed in the state of MN and those looking for initial licensure. We also discussed that we had come into the degree for very different reasons.

Reading week 11

I enjoyed having my feelings against rows/columns in the classroom validated. To encourage communication in the classroom and avoid students hiding I used squares in my room (with middle school age kids circles are difficult). I found the "square" to give a little structure to the set up, with the benefits of the circle.

The section on discipline is difficult. Obviously if things aren't working students need to be rearranged. The set up of the room has a big impact on student behavior as well as achievement. However, the same thing doesn't work for every class. It's just like everything else in education. You really need to know the specifics of the class you are working in and the individuals in the class as well.

Class week 10

Rachel and I worked on our lessons together. We spent a long time talking about the parts that did or did not work. For both of us it was interesting that the plans made perfect sense, but the other did not know what we meant until we showed her. It was not a case of bad plans, but a problem with wording. For example, I knew "write a paragraph as a class" meant that the teacher would ask for ideas and then form them into sentences on the board as a practice for the assignment. This was not clear to Rachel. This way when I revise I can add details to my description in the lesson plan.

We also talked about whether this was a lesson we would ask a sub to do. We agreed that for both of our lessons that we would have subs do parts of them, but not all of them. There are things that we need to make sure are learned in a specific way to ensure understanding (vocabulary etc) but some of the background work is more flexible. A sub could talk about pets with the class and ask them to bring in an object or picture of a pet they have or would like to have. Then the regular teacher would be able to focus on the body parts.

Chapter 9 in HDB was a good review of what we've discussed and what we need to keep in mind while planning. It is a useful resource for making sure we have a variety of activities and include controlled and semicontrolled ones. I liked the textbook evaluation form because it is much shorter than what we read last week.

I like what I read to be practical. I do not like to spend my time reading about theories alone. I like reading about things that are useful and that can include the theories. For me that is when the theories actually make sense.

Chapter 10 in the same book was nice for people who haven't done teaching. It's also a good reminder for those of us who have written a million lesson plans. It's important to refresh our brains as to what is important when planning. I find that especially important for me, because I find that I do these things by instinct rather than by any teaching I had as an undergrad. I like to reassure myself that I am doing my best to reach everyone.

Week 9 Reaction

It was surprising how many of us had not realized we were teaching lessons in groups in the coming week. We knew we had to do it at some point, but we were just not expecting it now.

The review of the multi-genre projects was interesting. Especially when the reviewers created the context for the project that was definitely not what was intended. It really gave us all something to think about. I also think it was interesting how defensive each of us was over the portions we had worked on. We really take these things as personal affronts.

Crazy that we find so much of these little things not as constructive, but feel attacked. I think it is human nature.

Overall I think it was a good week, in spite of my personal crankiness. :)

Week 9 Reading

I liked the MCM readings this week. The section of Guidelines for Language Classroom Instruction gives a nice outline of ideas to keep in mind when prepping a class. It’s easy to get set on a style of teaching (type of activity) to keep using, because it fits how we think as teachers. However, since people have a variety of learning styles it helps to remember different activities that reach the same goal. It’s also good to remember that sometimes a million activities are less effective than direct instruction (and the reverse). We tend to focus on leaving the “old lecture” style behind that we ignore it’s uses.

The most useful part of the ESP section, for me, was the one on preparing the curriculum and how to assess the needs of the learners. Again it helps to have a list of things to keep in mind when working on classes.

The lesson planning section was the same as in any other class.

I liked having a list of things to look for in text books. I’ve actually avoided textbooks. I just pick and choose the materials I want from a variety of texts to teach my classes. But it would be nice to have much of what I want to use in one source.

Week 8 reflections

I thought the presenters, Jodi and Mariya, did nice jobs this week. They were clear and concise.

I do have some thoughts about CASAS. I can tell Mariya truly enjoyed working with this system. It is well thought out, organized and easy to execute. However, the core tools of this program are against what I've been taught about teaching. This program seems to use testing. Standardized testing gets in the way of teaching. Every test given is time out of instruction. These students have the stress of testing every couple of months. They are going to feel the stress knowing the test is coming and not be as able to concentrate during instruction. The second aspect I have trouble with is that it encourages teaching to the test. When teachers focus on how to pass the test, other aspects disappear. They have to leave out culture or communication aspects. So is this the best way?

I know that these are adult learners and I haven't studied the strategies for adult learners. Perhaps incredible amounts of testing and teaching to the test are fine for adults. I just don't know, but listening to the concepts set off alarm bells in my head.

Finally, when Mariya mentioned some of the vocabulary I wondered why hasn't this been updated more recently. I know that updating tests is very costly, but if so many places are using the system (and adding the system) aren't they bringing in the money to do the update? I would think so. Then what is the company doing with the money, vacationing in Hawaii?

I guess I'm skeptical about this program because it seems too easy.

Response to reading Week 8

So when I was reading chapter 8 in Brown this week I wondered where some communities fall into the ESL/EFL category. There are several small towns in this area where a full third of the town is hispanic/latino. In these communities the students speak Spanish at home, because that is was their families and neighbors speak. However, at school they have to speak English...but they don't typically "hang out" with the English speaking students, they hang with the Spanish speaking students. This means these students are not utilizing the tools/resources they have available to them. They have the opportunity to use English through most of their school day, but they isolate themselves and choose to not practice their social English. Are these students still learning ESL...they've virtually created an EFL situation for themselves. The students I'm thinking of mostly came to the US in late elementary school or later.

The kids who came in early elementary school straddle the gap. They have friends who are NSs of English as well as Spanish. They hang out in both groups fairly comfortably and enjoy the benefits of bilingualism.

The adults in these families often do not need to learn English either because they have their children's (limited or proficient) English to count on. Schools hire professional interpreters, children interpret when necessary, and numbers are the same in the grocery stores. Small towns are isolated.

The chapter talked about various situations in elementary/secondary classes as well as colleges. But I just wondered about the isolated communities.

Week 7 Response

I enjoyed the active nature of the game from the presentation. Although at times it was a little heated.

The library presentation was a useful starting point. It was very helpful, to me, to hear a little of the differences in the different journal/article searches. I'd been just randomly choosing something and now I have a little focus. It would be expecting miracles for me to have more than a little focus these days.

I quite enjoyed reworking someone else's lesson plans. It's fun to take something and change it a little bit, with the goal of maintaining the author's intent. I hope that when the other group looks at what we came up with they can still recognize their original lesson. I have to say it was tough to change, because theirs was a lot of fun. I think we did change the target level, yet maintained the fun.

Confession time, I hate to blog (sorry Chris and others). I hated keeping journals in the past, I occasionally try to force myself to do so. I just hate it. A blog is so much like a journal only rather public. I find it invasive. I enjoy my privacy, yet have no qualms about sharing my thoughts in person. Perhaps that is the performer in me. I worry that things I write will be misunderstood because I have such a clear voice in my head (my own voice, not the kind that tell me to do things) that is full of sarcasm, tenderness, laughter etc. I often find myself misunderstood and I don't like that. When I speak, the tone of my voice fills in the blanks that writing leaves. I could fill them in, in writing, but I'd sound downright silly (she said seriously).

Reading Week 7

L&S ch 3 dealt with when it's best to learn a language. Basically if it's done very young the learner will gain near native fluency. However beyond that studies are all over the place. Various ages learn different aspects more quickly than others. In the end there wasn't any clear cut advantage in adolescent vs adult learning. Different characteristics can be "proven" to be most important in acquisition.

The chapter in Brown about age levels was obvious. For one thing younger learners don't have the vocabulary in their L1 to talk about the concepts that adult learners do, therefor there will be things that can't be done in their L2. Also, when planning activities for a class, a good rule of thumb is 1 minute per year of age, then change activities...this has to do with attention span. You go too long and they are playing TMNT, Little Ponies, Harry Potter, planning their next date, passing notes, paying bills...they've made the change for you. Of course this is only a rule of thumb, and some activities hold them longer.

The specific advice in chapter 7 felt fairly obvious. However, it was so nice to finally see a breakdown of the major levels of language acquisition. In trying to plan a lesson for _________ level learners I was completely making things up. I didn't know what it meant and made guesses. If I said beginning I went way back, and advance very advanced. I made sure I never had to plan anything for intermediate learners, because how far from the extremes was it really. This chapter would make more sense at the beginning of the book. For one thing, knowing what level I am looking at makes different theories hold more true in my head than others.

Class

I kind of liked the presentation as lecture this week. We could participate as we had reactions or we could sit back and absorb the information. I liked reviewing the major points from the reading, because I don't retain the specific points, just overall ideas. This helped me focus in and file the information.

I found the organizing of the twelve styles interesting. Our group was pretty laid back, yet I could see that some members didn't agree with what we decided. In spite of the difference of opinion, nothing was said and they just went along with what the rest said. It was unfortunate because they may have had valid arguments that we didn't get to hear.

I did not like the placing of ideas on the board. Partially because I was not in a frame of mind to walk around and read various ideas. But also because the boards were so crowded we couldn't get close enough to really read the thoughts. I also found nothing inspiring that was up there, this sounds evil!!! I don't think it was though, it would have taken a three ring circus to inspire me during class.

When we did the discussion of the learning styles I realized that I actually enjoy the large group discussions, whether or not I vocally participate. The thoughtful discussion of various topics intrigues me. I may not agree with what's being said, but I like to hear why other people think the way they do.

I realized, as we worked on the lesson plans, that the difference between content and language objectives is fuzzy in my brain. All the language objectives I could think of were grammar related. I need to review objectives that don't focus on grammar.

Class response

I enjoyed the energy Stephanie and Brian brought to their presentation. I think the review and the way they got to the review of the reading was good, what I felt was missing was any discussion of the material. When there was dispute of the answer we just continued on. We weren't really involved in the process, only saying true or false. The supporting of a particular view was interesting, it might've been even more engaging to support our "choices" in a verbal debate. Overall, I felt a lot of thought went into this presentation.

Reading Week 6

OK, I finally have the book. Silly old library system.

Reading about CLT, it seems like common sense to me. In no field of teaching is the teacher thought of as all-knowing. Why should language teaching be any different. The teacher is expected to have greater knowledge, overall, than the students. However, a teacher always has the right, and responsibility, to look up the information a student needs.

Using student input/needs to direct the class is also a no-brainer. Why work on concepts that will not help the student communicate?

The tie between fluency and accuracy also seems obvious. People speak/think more fluently as they become less concerned about accuracy; people become more accurate (overall) as they become more fluent.

Finally, it makes sense to be able to communicate some basic structures need to be learned. In order to reach these goals it wouldn't be sensible to have students study bizarre conversations about laundry detergent or the price of rocks on Mars. It does make sense to use materials that are relevant to the students...to engage them. Tov use a variety of styles to connect to as many learners as is possible.

I like the anticipation of reward, merely because it involves Skinner, who always makes me think of Pavlov's drooling dogs. However, reward is a strong motivator. How many people would go to work if they did not get a paycheck? Not many. We want something for our time and effort: tickets to shows, money, books, cars, thanks...something. Yes we would prefer our students to be primarily intrinsically motivated, but they want something: to talk to peers, grades, a movie, they will get tsomething out of it.

Week 5 Reading

While reading the peanut butter chapter (P&B ch 2) I was initially frustrated that it was virtually the same reading as last week. (Especially when I got to my good buddy Chomsky.) However, I liked the manner in which Krashen's five hypotheses were written about. I liked the idea that a person can learn a language without acquiring the ability to use it. To me I feel that learning the language is a step of acquisition.
The Natural Order Hypothesis makes sense to me. I know that there are aspects of English usage (especially writing) that come with a chemical change in the brain. People can understand the concept earlier, but not be able to consistently apply it until that chemical has flipped a switch. This fits with the idea that aspects of a language are acquired in a particular order. This is where I can begin to see the possibilities of innate language theories.

The wait time is another concept I find interesting. It matches up to what we talked about last week. We discussed being uncomfortable speaking in our L2s. Krashen says to not push, that people will produce the language when they are ready.

Another form of this is also called "think time." The idea is to wait 3-5 seconds after posing a question to clarify or call on students to answer. I'm wondering if this time needs to be longer in an ESL classroom?

Presenting

To prepare for my presentation I decided to go over the main points of the chapters, but I was feeling that it was "boring" and the class had already read it. As I continued re-reading chapter 2 of Lightbrown and Spada the ideas resonated with my experiences as a language learner and as a teacher of ESL students. Each section of the chapter brought up more memories and I felt linked to what was being talked about.

I decided to share my L2 experiences (German and Spanish) from childhood through early college. I knew how fearful I was to produce language orally and wondered how that compared to the people in the class. One of the questions put forth at the beginning of the chapter is about how comfortable the student is in a variety of situations. Perfect, I thought. So I jumped into the presentation, sharing my story and asking for the class's input. I appreciated what everyone had to say, I was not alone in my feelings. I also learned that the "fears" I have are not entirely unfounded, that feeling I won't be understood has come up. Yet many of the people in class have tried anyway, and those who are speaking English as an L2 are demonstrating proficiency daily. (I really admire this!) I wish I would've drawn more people into this discussion, I think that there are other experiences that would help me understand what it is like for my students and maybe help me feel more confident in trying out my L2s. I also wish I would have asked people to connect our experiences to the reading, it would have provided a clearer picture of my intent.

What happened? That's a good question. As someone who talks A LOT, I ramble when I get nervous. I walked in thinking I knew what I was going to do and knowing about how much material I had. After 10 years of teaching I was confident I had 30-45 minutes of material, and a good concept of how time was passing. Something went wrong in my wiring. I went through my material, but talked 20 times faster than necessary. I felt I'd been up there for about 20 minutes when Esther told me I had 20 minutes left. I felt absolute panic, I still had my filler material...but had I really only used 10 minutes. I lost all focus. I had no idea what I was going to do. I kept talking off my notes, but I wasn't even thinking about the words coming out of my mouth; I could only focus on the time problem. Then I had 10 minutes left, but I felt only two had gone by. I did the only thing I could think of, I stopped.

What do I wish I had done?
I wish I'd made two lesson plans. One written out completely (which is what I had) and one outline. I would have had an easier time keeping track of my place in my plan without having to re-read every word I'd written. I also could've put the outline on the doc-cam or given a hand out so the class could have a visual reference.
As I mentioned before, I wish I would've drawn more people into the discussion and had them tie the topics to the reading.
I also wish I would've remembered my phone, it has a clock and I would've felt calmer with my own reference point. It would've helped me slow down and pay attention to what I was doing. I wouldn't have talked so fast, or felt so pressed to finish everything in the first 3 minutes.

What am I glad I did?
I'm glad I shared my stories. These are things that pop into my head at various times, but I don't share them. I think that people's experiences are interesting and important. It helps me understand where they are coming from, and in that spirit that's where my stories came from. I'm also happy about how the discussion went. People shared interesting anecdotes that really helped me understand them.

Final thoughts: When it's your turn, relax and enjoy it. We all need to make a presentation and are sympathetic to your situation. We'll welcome what you have to say and help you out as much as possible, after all, we don't want to be left hanging. My own moments of panic have to do mostly with my inability to see a clock, so bring a watch.

L&S Reading

When I read the section on Innatism (with Chomsky) I was completely turned off of the rest of the reading. I feel that the way this frame of thought was written about it was a complete joke. The content from this section belongs in a science-fiction story. That anyone could possibly believe that a child learns to speak the same way they learn to walk, crawl or blink is incomprehensible. I remember reading Chomsky's beliefs in the past and not having any strong reaction to them, but this time I was surprised to find out he dabbled in sci-fi. I am a fan of science-fiction, but it has no place as a proposed theory.

Having vented that I can identify much more with language learning as a cognitive/interactive process. Once I calmed down and reapproached the reading. I feel that there is necessarily thought put into language learning, for most people. Mostly I believe the approach/method that works best varies between individuals. I'm most comfortable reading for pleasure in my own language so I feel I learn best by having some basics and then tackling the style of reading I most enjoy in my L1 to improve my L2 vocabulary and understanding of grammatical structure. On the other hand two very good friends of mine, also voracious readers, are much more comfortable simply jumping in and speaking ASAP. I very much believe language acquisition is individual.

First blog

Last class we broke into groups to discuss possible topics for our multi-genre projects. I enjoyed the conversation. Jodi and Mariya had some really interesting points and were excited about the topic. We talked about ways to teach composition with ESL students and focused on how to incorporate the 6-traits of writing. Mariya also brought up that using games to teach some aspects has been very useful to her in other situations and we discussed that being an option for part of our research.
The 6+1-traits of Writing are close to my heart because I've been using them in my "regular ed" English classroom for about six years. Some years have been more successful than others, but I truly feel that they are effective to give the students language they can use to talk about writing (and reading) that they all understand. I've found also that while we want to focus on the whole picture with student writing (NSs and SLLs) that by focusing the attention on a specific portion of the writing has been beneficial to many of my students. Using the traits has shown me improved writing from all of my students.