Author: linhle

I think the answer would have to be a ‘yes’. There has to be some way of quantitatively evaluating knowledge for logistical purposes. Do I think we may put too much of an emphasis on grades or we may be using them incorrectly? I think the answer to that would also be a ‘yes’. This is not the first class I’ve been in that had discussions on the implementation of grades, and I’ve heard convincing arguments from students, teachers, administrators, etc. for both the pro and anti grade sides.

The purpose of grades is rather clear: provide an efficient and objective way to summarize a student’s knowledge of material. Unfortunately, getting good grades and understanding class material is not a one to one correspondence. Many tests are designed for fact and formula regurgitation and do not allow for students to truly demonstrate their understanding of the concepts presented in class. Students recognize this divide, as many of the ‘anti-grade’ students have claimed that they would focus more on learning if they were not worried about getting good grades, as if the two were mutually exclusive.

Thus the problem lies with assessment I think; we must be designing assessments around giving opportunities  for students to actually demonstrate their knowledge. Now this is easier said than done, which is why such assessments are not common, but I think it’s something that must be done if we want to pursue a better correlation between grade and understanding.

First off, I apologize if the guest speakers name was not Megan, but I recall that’s what Chelsea called her. What I found interesting about the school that she worked at was that there was no ELL -specific math course, even though they had ELL-specific courses for the rest of the ‘core’ subjects. Did the big boss in charge decide that math was far enough removed from English with its numbers that most students can do reasonably well?

I’m not sure where I stand on this issue; on one hand, I agree that it could be possible to at least pass math with minimal English understanding because one can be familiar with numbers, symbols and pictures, but on the other, all explanations and word problems are in English. Many students do not have the ability to learn through just symbols and numbers, and need a teacher, or some source to connect mathematical ideas using explanations English. Word problems are also considered the more advanced type of question found in assessments, and are often worth more points on a test than its basic numerical counterpart.

Now it seems that the majority of ELLs in my placement school are from East Asia, where they spend more time on math per week than North American students. Their mathematical skills are often very good, sometimes a few grades above their registered course, but they often lose marks where it matters: the word problems.

So I think English may be just as much a barrier to learning and expressing knowledge in math as it would be in any other discipline, and it would make just as much sense to have an ELL-specific math curriculum if there are already ELL-specific courses for other subjects.

I thought I was lucky to be placed in the assessment presentation. Over the short practicum, the biggest criticism I received was about assessment; “How do you know?”; “How do you know that they know what you want them to know?”; these sorts of comments left me without much of an answer as every time I did try to reply, my SA would reply back with the same question. “I walked around and saw that they were doing the question correctly, with proper steps,” I say. They say, “Well how do you know that they actually understand and are not just following instructions?” It was a little irritating but I completely understood that they had me.

When my group met up to decide on how to do the presentation, the first thing we decided on was to not do a “powerpoint and regurgitate the chapter” sort of lesson with a fun little game that wasn’t too related to the material and was more meant to break up the monotonous presentation. We also wanted to have the class walk away from our presentation with something useful, something that was worth coming to class on that day.

Thinking a little outside the box, we decided on assessing the class’ assessment! Some sort of assessmentception. But the main course was to provide a structure to assessment with our worksheet, and to give time for each cohort to really think about how they’re going to assess their classes.

I really enjoyed the games we played with Graham for a lot of reasons; the first one being that I love playing games, especially after being in Drama/Theatre in highschool for 5 years and being a camp and orientations leader. I love playing ice breakers, low to high risk games, and improv games; it’s a way to get familiar with a group of people (read: class). Certain games also show different dynamics with the group of players. When we played the stomping game, you could see which group of people synched well; you could see the mischievous people intentionally altering the rhythm; and you could get a feel that we became more comfortable with each other as our rhythm became more consistent around the ring.

An important literacy for teachers to have is energy and body  literacy. A teacher should be able to read the room and see where the student’s levels of energy are and hopefully adjust their lecture accordingly. It’s pretty bad to see a very enthusiastic teacher tying to push her super -duper activity on a very low energy crowd, or seeing the same class fall asleep because the lesson was super dry.

Another thing that is interesting about these sorts of games is that they do not require English literacy. There was one student who came late to the stomping game yet he knew how to play almost immediately after observing. These sorts of games are very intuitive and could be used with all sorts of ELLs and proficient English speakers together.

-Linh

Now that I am no longer working everyday after class, I have regained my sanity  and have some time to go back and reflect on various topics we have gone through as a class.

I would first like to discuss about chapters 1 and 2 about building academic language together with the group presentation on those chapters. Through my experience as a tutor and coach, I love to teach through colloquialisms and metaphors since it’s easier to retain less abstract information so I wasn’t too sure where I stood with my opinion on this chapter. I think a nice mix of both is good; initially introduce concepts using as few new academic words as possible, then once the students are familiar, formalize the concepts by using academic language and teach the meanings of new ‘bricks’. I guess in a metaphorical sense, I like to cover my bricks with mortar before I assemble my walls. Maybe I’m still slightly insane.

Regarding the presentation, I really enjoyed the example of teacher paraphrasing what the student says, as this connects a colloquial word (what the student said) with academic language (what the teacher paraphrases). I also enjoyed the concept of the in-class exercise, as it really demonstrates how important mortar is when instructing and teaching. Unfortunately, I got paired up first with a home-ec teacher whose parents were both math teachers, and I love to cook. So when I was instructed to draw a sieve, santoku knife, mortar and pestle, and spring-form pan (which I knew but my partner didn’t!), these were all items with which I had experience. And needless to say, my partner’s mathematical background was strong enough that she didn’t need much from me to solve the equation; thus we were both already fairly proficient in the ‘bricks’ of each other’s disciplines. But the second time around, when we were allowed to do anything, it was still easier to communicate!

-Linh