Engaging English Language Learners

1.  My first impression is that David is responsible to change his teaching style and/or techniques.  Whatever he is doing is not adaquately reaching the students in his class.  I am assuming that the students are inhibited from understanding or being engaged in the material being presented due to their limited English proficiency.  I am not assuming that because the students are not presently engaged they are poor students or have no interest in the subject material at hand.  As an observer, of sorts, I am frustrated by David's attitude, especially the comparison between his former honors students and those he is presently teaching.  I also resonate with his frustration.  Given the amount of material I'm sure he must need to cover, it is difficult to know how to proceed given his student population's lack of English language proficiency. 
2.  Generally, he sought to make his material more comprehensible to his students.  Specifically David followed Donna's advice to change the ways in which he was presenting his material.  He supported his lectures which visuals, as well as incorporated different reading aloud strategies which invited more student questioning and reponses.  These changes seemed to alter David's attitude toward his class and his students as well.  He didn't seem as hopeless regarding his teaching goals.  In addition, he observed that both himself and his students were more relaxed.
3.  My thinking has not changed significantly since my first comment.  I do have more sympathy toward David, as I watched him seek our advice and try to put into practice various strategies to increase comprehensible imput.  I was also challenged to define the students in his class in terms other than by their language limitations.  I'm beginning to understand the long term effects that the desingation could have on students.
4. Seek help.  When you are frustrated in the classroom, with content or with students, collaborate with other teachers.  Admitting that you need ideas or advice on how to make material more comprehensible to students is a necessary step in improving your teacher.  Second, be creative.  What works for one group of students (honors, in David's case) is not going to work for a distinct group of students.  This is not because something is wrong, or deficient about the students, but rather, they have different strengths which require different input strategies.  A good teacher knows his or her content well enough to teach it in a myriad of ways.
5.  I'm answering this for language arts, not science.  Language arts instruction tends to be founded on individual reading, writing, lecture and discussion.  There are drawback to each of these for various types of students.  Each of these strategies is usually dependent on a strong academic vocabulary, as well as requiring basic language proficiency in order to even begin to participate effectively.  These strategies need be augmented with non-language based strategies (such as the use of visuals and kinesthetic styled activities) which will assist in making the linguistic imput comprehensible.  In addition to this, I strongly believe that it is the responsibility of the teacher to reach the students.  As a teacher, I cannot simply blame students when they are having difficulty comprehending my instruction.  I need to first look at my own teaching, making sure that I am creatively seeking to reach students through a variety of means.

I think students in this class find neither motivation nor
opportunities for engagement. They feel themselves distanced from an expository
style of teaching that almost only relies on literacy skills with which they
struggle. I think this disengagement doesn't have to do with them having no interest,
but with the fact that this lesson that does not appeal to their strengths but
only to their deficits. They notice that they are given no credits and no
opportunities to engage more actively through other skills, and instead, feel
put down when they are handled boring and simplified outlines of the lesson.
This does not help build their self-efficacy so they detach from the lesson,
even more.
I think David is delivering this lesson in the same way he
used to do with his advanced class, assuming it would work just as well, using
a teacher centered style. He has not adapted instruction to this new group of
students, thus, he is not customizing the content of the lesson to the needs of
these learners. I also feel that he makes an inadequate decision to make
content more approachable based on an incorrect reading of the group. David has
formed negative expectations towards the students as achievers, which makes him
reason that the material is too difficult for them to understand. Instead of
trying to vary his own instructional methods, he ends up making use of a duller
strategy by taking the ownership of the learning process away from them.
 I think David could present the material in a different way,
using other triggers to introduce the kids into the lesson. His instruction
could involve a more dynamic, visual and tactile way to ignite and keep the
interest. Along the lesson, he could address literacy components in reading and
comprehension using a peer-to-peer strategy, for instance, to allow for communication
without having kids feel embarrassed for not mastering language skills in front
of the whole class.

2-Initially, David starts
off thinking of how the students are not doing well and cannot grasp the
information.  He tried to do his best to teach the students the way he knew how, but it just did not work.  Later on in the case
study, the changes he made (using strategies Donna gave him-using visuals, etc.) got his students to become more relaxed and he
enjoyed teaching the class more and more as time progressed.  
3-Initially, I believed
that David had a negative outlook on his class and created a self-fulfilling
prophecy where they were not learning and he was not doing a good job teaching
them because he did not know how. 
After asking for help, he has gained more insight on how to handle the
situation and to better teach his students gaining confidence in himself as a
teacher and the students gain confidence in themselves through their
learning.  The degree of my thinking about this case changed a bit due to the fact that he asked for help and received it, and applied it.  
4-The key lessons learned
in this case is to realize when there is something you need help on, and to
ensure you ask for help to teach the students to the best of your ability. Otherwise, you as the teacher, and the students will struggle.  The following teachers will have a hard time teaching those students new material on top of what they were supposed to have learned the year before, and the cycle would continue and get worse as the time goes on.
5-The
most common strategies for teaching in my classroom would be to have many
different ways to explain the information to ensure all the students who learn
differently are reached in one way or another.  The benefits of using many different ways of teaching
(visual, aural, and kinesthetic) help all students learn and enjoy the
experience more.  The drawback to
teaching the material in more than one way is that it could be time consuming
and sometimes not feasible due to the amount of time given per class.  The principles that will guide my
decisions in teaching would be to ensure the material taught is obtained.  If the students do not understand the
initial material, how can the students be expected to learn more new material
that would coincide with the old material?  When they understand the material, they can then move
forward with learning new things and will have intrinsic motivation to learn
new things.  

1. I assume that the students in David's class have given up on his subject because having taught honors classes in the past David may have implemented his previous teaching strategies that worked perfect for the honors students, but are difficult for ELL students due to language barrier. Students are bored in this class because they simply do not comprehend the material.
1. I've got the impression that David doesn't believe that these students can do well, and he unintentionally passes his low expectations to his students. For example, he assumes that even though Tamika and Yessinia participated in the whole-class discussions, they still do not comprehend the material because they did poorly on the past exam. In addition, even though he is trying to help the students by outlining and summarizing the text, he doesn't realize that those techniques are not enough in order to engage his students. In addition, changes don't happen overnight. David needs to be patient and explore different techniques for reaching out to English Language Learners such as scaffolding, using visual aids, making the lessons a little entertaining.
2. In the beginning David, a former honors’ class teacher, felt hopeless about his English Language Learners.  Even though he did modify his teaching by making an outline and a summary of the chapter using simpler words, his ELL students still didn’t show any comprehension or any interest in the subject. David followed Donna’s advice and I assume he used more visual aids, he also read aloud passages to his students giving them an opportunity to stop him any time they had a question or a comment, or if they encountered an unfamiliar word. David felt more relaxed in his class as his students were more engaged. His perception of those students also changed. Now he thought of them as “capable.”
3.  I believe my thinking has not changed. I still believe that Dave needed to be taught techniques and strategies for working with ELL students. He had low expectations of his students at the beginning and even though he was trying to be helpful, he was skeptical about it.
4. What I have learned from this case is that you should not have low expectations of ELL students. Just because they encounter language barrier it does not mean that they are less capable to comprehend the material that is being taught. There are many different strategies that teachers can implement in their instruction; they just need to explore what works and what doesn’t work for their student. Turning to ESL coordinator for advice may turn out quite beneficial. 

5. I am not teaching yet, but I am planning to implement many visual aids in my instruction, and I think that ELL students will not be the only ones who will benefit from it. Many native English speakers lack comprehension due to literacy and other issues. I am also planning to demand that my students have a vocabulary notebook where they will be asked to write down the new terminology after we discuss it in class. I will have the students discuss the meaning of the new terminology by guessing from the context, their past knowledge, prefixes and suffixes as well as roots of the word. In addition, instead of me reading the material from the power point and explaining it to my students, I will ask my students to read small passages and explain in their own words what they understood from the passage, then I will step in to clarify in the end if needed. Principles that will guide my decisions in teaching mathematics are that all students can learn; it’s just the way they learn that is different. Students learn better if they can connect the new material to real life experiences. They will also perform better if you model for them or if you give them explicit directions.
 

1. What
are your impressions of this case? What assumptions are you making about the
students in David’s class? Explain your thinking. What assumptions are you
making about David and his decisions in this case? Explain your thinking.
Some of the quotes make interesting
point about the problem presented here in this excerpt. I am assuming that this
would be a hard class to teach since it has students who do not have a
somewhat-good command of the English language. I have to say that it is ideally
better to tackle one problem at a time. In order for the student to really have
a rich understanding of the subject matter, they would have to first understand
the language of the speaker. In this case, David is instructing in English. It
is not possible for David to use Spanish even if he knew how to speak it when
there are other foreigners or people with other literacy problem in the
classroom. I can understand what David is going through. I am currently
tutoring this Vietnamese Special Ed and English learner in math and in English.
I can see how he is falling behind in his classes because he does not
understand what the teachers are saying. Even if he tries to read the textbook,
he cannot make out what it means. I had to speak with him in Vietnamese and
explain the steps of how to solve a math problem in order for him to
comprehend. With this experience, I do not see how I can teach math to students
who cannot understand what I say. From the basic level, math may just be
numbers and communicating in a certain language may not play a big role.
However, as materials advance, instructions and problems will be written in
sentences. Thus, this requires students to understand what are being said. If
the problem that comes up in understanding the subject matter derives from
being language illiterate, then that should be tackled first. We should somehow
bridge the gap between languages, and then perhaps teaching the subject matter
may be less strenuous. 
            However,
this political matter goes beyond the control of a teacher. Since the
difficulty is presented in our classroom, we have to find ways to teach our
very best. I understand David’s frustration and I can see why he distributes
the chapter outlines for their convenience. The problem is a tough one, but as
teachers, we cannot give up on our students. I would say try every possible
method: using hand gestures, diagrams, repeat phrases, or group activities.
David can also refer the students to free in-home tutoring services or after
school programs in which the tutors may help them with the subject in their own
language. David can also allow the Spanish-speaking students to speak with each
other in their own language if they look like they’re trying to help each other
understand the materials. The job of a teacher is to not be disheartened and make
realistic goals for the students. And if somehow, with all the efforts that
David employs and the students are just not getting it, then at least they have
learned something. There are cases where the students will not be able to
comprehend no matter how much one tries. For example, my tutee’s teachers and
classmates are not able to help him. His parents have to hire me to help him
with his homework and teach him English. Even I, who speak his language, find
it hard to get him to understand instructions in English. I can see how it is
much more difficult for other teachers. We, as teachers, have to look at this
problem as a challenge for us to better our instructions by understanding the
needs of our learners.
 
2. Describe the shift
in David’s teaching, from the beginning of the case, to the changes based on
his collaboration with Donna. What specific changes did he make, and how did
those changes impact his disposition toward his students?
At the beginning David felt discouraged because the students weren’t
responding to his instructions. They did not do their home assignments or
comprehended the materials. They were unprepared for class discussion. He
thought that they were not capable of learning the academic terminologies.
However, his colleague, Donna showed him various ways of explaining the biology
terms. One of the methods that he took from Donna was the Interactive Read
Aloud. This method was proven effective from his practice. Students were
showing signs of understanding. David then realizes his efforts were not
wasteful and begins to believe in their capabilities as well as bettering his
own instructions.
3.  Return to your
first impression—how has your thinking changed?  Reread your impression
comments. To what degree has your thinking about this case changed?
Not much of my impression has changed regarding
this case. It was just that at beginning I was assuming that David’s students
do not understand English at all. I was relating his situation to my own
experience with an EL and Special Ed learner. Sometimes there are extreme cases
like my tutee whom requires special attention and accommodation. However, now
that I understand that David’s case is a case of a general education class, I
have a new input to add into my previous comments. I personally agree with
Aukerman that learning an academic language is better through meaningful social
interaction. I remember coming to the states at the age of six in a half. I had
a tough time understanding the teacher. Luckily, I had a good friend who came
to the states before me and had acquired the language. She helped me
communicated my needs to the teacher. I remember in first grade, Ms. Shirley
(who is now Mrs. Hughes), asked the class: “Who can give me another word that
begins with the letter ‘X’?” ‘X’ to me sounds like ‘eggs.’ So I remember trying
to tell the teacher something like that but the word didn’t come out. My best
friend at the time translated for me and said ‘eggs.’ I was not correct, of
course. But the Ms. Shirley was really nice and she kindly told me that I was
close but ‘eggs’ does not exactly start with an ‘x.’ Looking back at this
memory, I don’t even remember how I can recall Ms. Shirley’s question when I
did not understand much English at the age of 6 ½ . There must be something
that happened psychologically through social interaction that made me recall
this event in detail. I can also remember her using her hand gestures a lot
when she said: “please give me another word for…”
Therefore, I agree that teachers need to have
varied approaches to their instructions and be able to connect to the students’
levels. We need to see the students’ decencies not as a weakness but as an
effort for us to modify our instructions while providing the same level of
competence. We can kill two birds with one stone. With our approaches, we can
teach the students the academic content knowledge and English at the same time.
Visualizations, demonstrations, and group activities communicate more than just
terms. They communicate ideas that becomes embedded in the students’ minds.
4. What are the key
lessons you learned from David’s case?

            I learn that teachers
should not look at students through deficit lens. Students can be great if we
hold them to the same high expectations as other students. We need to recognize
students for their strengths rather than focusing on their weaknesses. I also
learn that a teacher cannot be almighty by him or herself, but he or she can
make great changes with the support and collaborative effort with other
colleagues. Do not be afraid to ask for help!
5. What are the most
common strategies for teaching (science) in your classroom? What are the
benefits and potential drawbacks of these strategies? As you begin to take on
more responsibility for instructional decisions in your career, what principles
will guide your decisions in teaching (science)? Explain your answer.
I think the most of common strategies for teaching
math in my classroom lecture follow by examples and homework. There is nothing
wrong with this strategy; it depends on the class. If the professor provides
and engaging lecture with real-life references and the students understand and
provide their own insights, then that is fine. However, I would say, it would
be more beneficial for the students to be able to collaborate with one another.
This teaching-strategy seems more like teacher-centered with only one approach.
The problem that this may pose is that it only satisfies one learning style;
there are many learning needs from each student. Students learn best when they
learn from each other. So the strategy that I would use would be a combination
of teacher-directed and student-directed. Ultimately, the more self-directed
they are, the better.
 

1. A number of the students seemed to have given up.  They did not understand the textbook or the lecture and were probably bored.  David thought that these students should be able to learn in the exact same way as his former students and did not change his teaching style apart from a simplified outline.  He would give long lectures, whereas he needed to encorporate vocabulary building and other interactive activities to engage the students and make concepts more concrete.
 
2.  He shifted to providing comprehensible input with visual cues, allowing the students to clarify concepts in their native language, and engaging in interactive read-alouds.  As the students started to understand the concepts better and participate, David become much more positive about their capabilities.
 
3.  My thinking hasn't really changed.  Although there is a question of whether in the beginning the students were speaking in their native languages off-topic because they were tuning out, or whether they were trying to clarify the lecture for each other.  Though the former is more likely with the lack of teacher engagement...
 
4.  The key lessons are that ELs shouldn't be written off because they don't learn in the same way as honors native English speakers and that teachers should make an effort to provide comprehensible input (via gestures, visuals, questions, relating to prior knowledge) as well as plan interactive activities for class.
 
5.  The first three years of high school foreign language is almost all about relearning BICS.  So, it is easy to incorporate gestures and pictures and role play and relate things to the students' lives because we're talking about food, transportation, clothing, etc.  The ideal lesson plan would then incorporate a short lecture, modeling, followed by practice activities (e.g. TPR, pair work, cooperative group work, etc).  In a block schedule, this pattern might be repeated for a second concept.  Vocabulary and grammar are very often compared to similar words and structures in English, sometimes Spanish.  Teaching a foreign culture often involves drawing on comparisons to the students' culture(s).  In sum, we are supposed to use comprehensible input strategies, draw on prior knowledge, and force the students to speak as much as possible in the target language.  All of this is good; the only drawback I can see is that extensive pair and group work requires good classroom management on the part of the teacher and self-discipline on the part of the students.  I intend to follow this model, though I will note that a number of French language teachers don't force their students to speak much French (either because of exclusive whole-class teaching or allowing comments in English long after it's necessary) and this impedes the students' progress in the language...

 
1. What are your impressions of this case? What assumptions are you making about the students in David’s class? Explain your thinking. My impression is that David is lacking the tools to reach his students. For starters, he is using a lecture-style approach which is often an inferior method even for those fluent in English. His attempt at fixing this problem is weak- he hands out outlines of the reading, in English, no doubt, and during the lesson, when it isn’t much help. The students, I suspect,  feel alienated by the teacher centered, CALPS-heavy instruction to which they can gain no cognitive purchase. It is possible that they are not, in fact, gossiping in their own languages during class, but rather trying to comprehend from each other what is being spoken by the teacher.What assumptions are you making about David and his decisions in this case? Explain your thinking.As a veteran science teacher, David might not be versed in reading strategies or ELL solutions. He seems to have been lulled into academic laziness due to his (perhaps less demanding) work with his Honors Biology students in the past. While lecture style teaching may have worked in the with them, there are major adjustments which need to be made in order to successfully deliver science content to ELLs.2. Describe the shift in David’s teaching, from the beginning of the case, to the changes based on his collaboration with Donna. What specific changes did he make, and how did those changes impact his disposition toward his students? Once David understood the difference between BICS and CALPS, he was able to use the former to engage the students in visual aids that support understanding of CALPS terms such as evolution. He also allowed students to converse in their native tongue in order to help comprehend difficult texts, he noticed a shift in the classroom atmosphere, making it more relaxed and learner-friendly. By using  “interactive read-aloud” he was able to slowly spoon-feed the material the students the CALPS at a rate that was comfortable for them.3.  Return to your first impression—how has your thinking changed?  Reread your impression comments. To what degree has your thinking about this case changed?Seeing that David is nearly a textbook example (pun intended) of an oblivious instructor, it was no surprise to me that his style needed major changes in order to become effective with ELLs. My thinking about this case has not changed after having read the selection, since this type of material is also covered extensively in our textbook and ESDE 423, in which I am currently enrolled.4. What are the key lessons you learned from David’s case?
Well I admit the technique Donna introduced,  the “interactive read-aloud,” seems a good way to teach diagnostically, both learning the comfort level of the students and creating a more appropriate format for their learning of the CALPS involved in his course.5. What are the most common strategies for teaching (English) in your classroom? What are the benefits and potential drawbacks of these strategies? As you begin to take on more responsibility for instructional decisions in your career, what principles will guide your decisions in teaching (English)? Explain your answer.For classes with ELLs, I would make certain that I had enough data on their reading levels, and if not, I’d administer the appropriate tests. Next, I would sample some reading content using the CLOZE method before determining what texts would be a good fit for the class as a whole. After that, I would begin front-loading potentially difficult CALPS terms using Dialectic Journals. I might try out an “interactive read-aloud” as well. I would pair higher level ELLs with lower level ones for group work, and permit them to translate or ask questions of each other in their native language, even while I was teaching. There is a taboo against ELLs speaking their native language in our society that needs to be actively worked against to the extent that is legal in the Californian public schools.
 
 

1. I believe that the students are simply being students. They are waiting for something to happen to grasp there attention. I assume they are students from low income families if not working class. They do not comprehend the material because they are struggling with their English and I believe if the teacher would just make adjustments to light up their attention may cause an improvement on the students understanding on the material. Making adjustment such as practicing their vocabulary on the subject. Using the words they use the most in frequency and making fun exercises that involve activities to make the student interact with each other. I believe that David is not use to this type of students. He was just so use too students that were bright and did not have a language barrier. He is getting desperate making outlines for students and trying to summarize everything into something he believes will benefit them. But the simple truth is that students will not benefit if they do not understand what they are reading. They did modeling and activities that allows them work in groups to strengthen their knowledge of the material
2. He changed by provide more comprehensible input that the students could understand. He used lots of Donnas' strategies that involve being in a more cooperative group environment and using the experiences of the Childs life such as their native language to engage them into the learning. David's frustration and thinking of the students capabilities dramatically changed as he saw the improvements the students made.
3. I do not believe my ideas have changed. The students were waiting for an engaging activity. Although I did learn new strategies that teacher can use such as the read-aloud and other important definitions that I did not know.
4. I learn that every child is important in some way and can't be judge because of their lack of English. Each child has the ability to learn the material as well as others, it is up to the teacher to never give up and if necessary get professional help as David did to improve the students learning.
5. For ELL students my most common strategy would have be frequency and relating the material to the students prior knowledge. The benefits of using words in high frequency is that the students will be more exposed to the words related to the material(science) and therefore making them use it more often in sentences. At the same time I will be using their prior knowledge to relate them to what they have experience in the past, so it could make a nice transition to the words. The possible drawback is simply time. Time is going to be effecting, by delaying new material that could be taught but what's the point in moving on if the students don't understand the basics. The principle that will guide my instructional decisions would have to be the ability to be flexible and expect anything and not make assumptions of the capability of a particular group of individuals. Students are to always be treated fairly and make commendations to particular set of students to further their understanding in the material.

2. David started to incorporate visual aids into his
instruction. He also shifted his strategies to allow for more participation,
implementing an Interactive Read aloud strategy, in which students can stop the
reader to pose questions and make inferences or connections. As soon as he
experienced these changes, he was encouraged by the results of having students
much more engaged. I also think that David must have experienced enthusiasm for
applying himself into a new task, which was probably engaging capacities that
might have been dormant, like paying attention to students’ interests or
eliciting their curiosity by ways of exploring new concepts. In turn, he
started to view the students in another light with the belief that they can
accomplish changes, shifting towards a more positive attitude, even towards
himself.
 3. My thinking has expanded to have a better understanding
of the processes involved in second language acquisition students and the need
to address these specific conflicts through specific strategies. I learned the
concept of comprehensible input and the importance of deliberately using context,
visual cues, rewording of unclear content, and opportunities for students to
express their doubts in order to meet the comprehensible input.
4. What are the key lessons you learned from David’s case?
I learned how to facilitate reading strategies in which students interact with
peers and text creating understanding in context, making sense of the text
right on the spot. I also learned how counter productive it is to downplay
students by assuming they need something easier to get. I also found it didactic
to see how another teacher came in to collaborate naturally. I finally took
notice of how a teacher can elicit connections to other related topics through
visual metaphors and metonymies as in the case in which Donna slides from  “biological changes that occur with
aging” to “the evolution of species”, making it enriching for the students.
5. In my classes I use a
variety of strategies to foster participation. When I teach multicultural Dances,
modeling is important, as well as breaking the movements and steps into small
sequences. I check for understanding and sometimes pair the students for them
to give each other feedback. Working cooperatively in small groups makes a task
improve and be more fun. When students have to get to practice something that
is hard, self-teaching and repeating of cues to oneself is useful. If I am
asking students to create a sequence or a dance, I may use exploration,
problem-based learning – like: “Find out how you can go to lay on the floor
avoiding any straight pathway”– and cooperative learning. Becoming credentialed
in Physical Education, I have been learning about dynamic strategies to engage
students, like stations with cards, and specific problem solving strategies.
The principles that will guide my choice of strategies will be to use variety
to have students reach all levels of thinking, address the engagement of their
senses and minds, learn through cooperation and respect diversity of learning
styles.