LLED 360

During my two-week short practicum, I was introduced to many different students form different backgrounds. I found it interesting how there were not very many ELL students in my classes. This being said, I realized how important the LLED 360 class is and how useful it is for our practicum. One thing that I found myself doing when teaching was focusing on the language I use. In the discipline of physical education, I often just think, Oh everybody knows what this means, just because I have so much experience with the language. After taking a moment to think back, I realized that I did not learn about anything like Rate of Perceived Exertion or Maximal Heart Rate until I was in university. This being said, when I taught a lesson on Rate of Perceived Exertion, I really had to focus on the language I was using with my students. I often found myself repeating ideas in different words to try to make sure that everybody could understand what I was talking about.

Another thing that I realized about language during my practicum, is that the language you choose to use has a very big impact on how the class will run. For example I did a fitness circuit with a class one day. When most people hear fitness they do not get overly excited, therefore I tried to make it more fun. When students asked what we were going to do, I responded by saying that we are going to play this really fun fitness game using cards. I was surprised that by just using that simple word, game, all of the students were more excited to do the lesson that I had planned. When discussing this with my sponsor teacher after my lesson, she commented on how great it was that I called it a game and how important it is to make the lessons seem more fun and appealing for the students to do. Therefore, one of the biggest things that I learned through my two week practicum is how important language is and how you explain activities, what you refer to activities as for all students in your class.

I think it is really important for math teachers to include performance based methods of assessment in their math class in order to show students a different side of math than what I think many people are used to. Using these types of assessment techniques are often great for showing students how math can relate to the real world and also allows them to have some fun when using math.

While on my short practicum, I did an activity with my Math 8 class where they were given a menu from a restaurant that I had created and were asked to choose one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert and then calculate the tax and tip on the items as a part of their assessment for the calculating percents unit. My SA does a similar activity with his classes where he brings in Best Buy flyers and the students are given a certain amount of money to spend but they must add PST and GST into their calculations. Given more time, I think that a project like this could be further expanded to have the students have to calculate what a restaurant should charge for each dish if they were given the cost of the ingredients and told that they should make a certain percent profit for each dish.

Activities like these are often fun and help students remember the concepts and procedures a lot better by helping to cement them in their minds. However, I think that it is important to recognize that certain types of questions on a typically formatted math test can also help to evaluate students’ understandings of concepts at a deeper level. When many people think of math, and the textbook alludes to this as well, they think of the rigid, black or white, one answer only type of question that have frequented math tests and texts. I believe that it is important for teachers to include open ended questions that require students to think at a deeper level and show a complex understanding of concepts in their assessments in order to properly assess learning. This is an idea that I think is becoming very popular in math classes nowadays and I think can help evaluate students in the same way as the performance based assessments because they require a very similar form of thinking.

As a teacher, I am to use plenty of performance based assessments and open ended questioning to try to help my students to the greatest of my ability.

My experiences during the short practicum were on the whole very positive.  I was excited and nervous with the opportunity of teaching a Spanish 11 course.  The importance of scaffolding became apparent early on, as everybody in the class was new with the language and ultimately fairly unaware of how to use it properly.  Also of importance were the uses of cognates, which helped the students to get a grasp of the meaning of the Spanish words in English.   Fortunately with Spanish, the cognates work well with the English language and are easily incorporated into a lesson with little initial preparation necessary.

In regards to chapter eight on language for academic writing, many useful activities were presented which can be incorporated into both my social studies and Spanish classes.  I was particularly fond of the written recap activity, which allows students a few minutes at the end of class to write down what they have learned during the lesson.  These few minutes are usually unproductive, as the students have crossed their threshold of focus.  This allows students to think about and process what they have learned in class.  It also; however, allows the teacher the ability to know if the students really understood the material that was presented during the lesson.  I do feel that the use of a few prompts such as “I learned that…, I do not agree with…, etc.” are necessary to get students to really think about their responses.  Perhaps also as a modification to this recap activity could be changing the questions to:

1. I know that…
2. I still need to learn that…

https://blogs.ubc.ca/lled360/2013/11/12/academic-writing-in-english-classes/

Thank you for sharing your positive experience with us Lucy. I am glad that your school advisor provided such a thorough template for essay writing for his students and that you have found his methods for teaching academic writing to be helpful.

As I read your blog post, I began to consider the ways that academic writing is approached in my content area, which is theatre. Drama classes can vary wildly in the amount of writing that students are encouraged to produce, both creative and academic. Some drama classes include very little academic writing and very little writing in general. Many drama teachers prefer not to include much writing for a number of reasons. For some teachers, there is a persistent worry that if students are asked to write that they will not enjoy the class. This is a concern because students may disengage from the course altogether if they become bored and they may even choose not to take the course in subsequent grades. Also, students who are struggling with writing for any reason may feel demoralized by an emphasis on writing in courses in which they are not expecting to encounter this challenge. Another reason drama teachers may fear asking their students to write is that teachers want to encourage oral and kinesthetic skills more than writing, because theatre is a performance art.

These are all legitimate concerns. However, I believe that it is a disservice to students to not incorporate both creative and academic writing into theatre classes, as these skills are absolutely necessary for the professional world of theatre (not to mention post-secondary theatrical training programs). Also, theatre has its own creative and academic writing genres that students need to know how to identify and use. Therefore, I believe that it is essential that students do both informal and formal writing activities in theatre classes. However, the crucial element to these activities is that they must be engaging and enjoyable for the students. If this is the case, the fears teachers have in relation to writing in their drama courses would no longer be valid, as students would be happy to complete the activities and would not try to avoid them. One of the examples of such activities is writing a short review of a performance. Students love to voice their opinions and this activity gives them a constructive method in which to discuss and critique the work of professionals and/or more experienced practitioners. Other examples are character biographies, favorite actor research projects, production proposals etc. All of these assignments allow the students to study and write about a topic that they are interested in and allows them to express creativity and to voice their own opinions. Also, encouraging students to work in groups to pre-write, write, and/or share their writing makes the activities even more enjoyable and promotes oral language, as well as fostering cooperative skills.

I intend to use assignments such as these in my theater classrooms in order to make enjoyable academic writing part of my curriculum.

Melanie Reich

Over the past two weeks during my short practicum I had the chance, like the other teacher candidates, to observe what goes on in classes and how teachers interact with their students. One observation that I found particularly interesting happened in my drama 9/10 class. Each of the Drama classes that I will be teaching has a handful of students who are ELL at different levels. During one of the exercises a student had a hard time trying to understand the concept that the teacher was trying to run. The student doesn’t have an aid to help with language barrier difficulties in class and it seemed that most of the students weren’t willing to help either. My SA had noticed this and walked over to see if she could be of any assistance. The student made it clear that she did not understand the instructions and the teacher tried to explain the steps again. For a student who can comprehend english easily the instructions sounded pretty straight forward but I don’t think that the ELL student had a concept of some of the terminology the teacher was saying. However, the teacher persisted but continued with the same language and slowed her voice down and over emphasized what she was saying in hopes that the student would eventually understand. It was evident that the student still didn’t understand and I could tell that she was becoming frustrated with the teacher. It seemed as if the student was feeling patronized by how her language barrier was being handled. She looked uncomfortable for a few more moments before she saw a student performing the exercise, understood it ,and then went and did it herself.

This incident provided me with the thought that even if I come up with a lesson plan and have key words, brick words, that I want to teach to students I should have a back up list in case I have students who have trouble understanding the original word that I am trying to teach. Hopefully by having a list of back up words I will be able to properly communicate to a student so that they aren’t feeling left out and can contribute to the class as well.

Please check out the play, here: http://qix.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/3/279

In groups of 4 or 5, you would share/be responsible for 2 or so scenes of the play in a multimodal way– ie, giving students copies of your section, performing your section, making a short video of your section, etc.. We could use one class period to prepare. Anything you would need to do beyond that one period you would need to do on your own time.

On Monday, we will make a class decision if we’d like to swap out the article reading/response (Section 4 of the portfolio) for this activity.

Writing for Academic Language

This chapter is great in that it addresses the dire need for many students to practice writing academic language.  It is true that as you move on up in school, there is less of an emphasis placed on narrative writing and/or journaling and more of a focus on academic writing, particularly persuasive writing.  I can recall my first time learning to write an argumentative essay.  It was in Grade 6 and I had no idea what a “thesis” was or a “body”.  On top of that, we had to include paragraphs called introductions and conclusions.  We were given a standard template to follow: intro, body (three supporting points in the order of second strongest point, weakest point, and finishing off with the strongest point) and a conclusion.  I remember going from reading things off of a reading card to suddenly have to produce a piece of writing.  It is a daunting task to convey ideas formally into your own words; energy is expended when it comes to churning out grammatically correct sentences that are cohesive.  I liken this challenge to someone who can understand a spoken language but who is unable to engage in dialogue simply because their production of words and sentences is not developed.  This suggests that practice is the KEY to mastering anything, including academic writing.

The example about having seat-belts on the bus (p. 197) conveys the message across clearly but it is written in a colloquial language.  The best solution here would be to repeatedly expose children to the specific genre of writing they are about to engage in.  Over time, they will develop the specific lingo, idioms, and catch onto the nuances of speech commonly used in academic language.  Reading and speaking aloud (much like a song) can indirectly ingrain into children’s minds, the way they should structure their sentences.  I also liked the examples of using graphic organizers.  In my undergrad degree, I ventured out of the regular note taking world into one of cloud formations and funny scribbles.  I attempted this for some time but found that for complex note taking, I needed to write more than I could possibly convey in a diagram.  This is not to say that Venn-diagrams and mind maps are ineffective.  Rather, they should be used in conjunction with proper note taking skills to see the physical connections between the ideas presented in class.  I also enjoyed the teeter-totter method for preparing students to write a persuasive essay.

My short practicum has given me insight into the real experiences of the ELL students. I observed quite a few English Language learners in different subjects, but the majority of my time was spent working with students in art classes. I was glad to see that students of various cultural backgrounds were given the opportunity to make art that was influenced by each of their cultures. They were encouraged to embrace all different factors that make up their identity, including language. There was also a lot of space in the lessons for the teacher to work with students one on one to clarify any language or expectations that may have been unclear.

I taught a class each day and was able to create lesson plans and vocabulary handouts that helped to scaffold the new academic language I was incorporating into my lesson. I soon learned, however, that even if I believe that I have explained things very clearly it does not mean that it translates completely to the students. I had one student in particular who needed time to digest the new information before being able to ask her questions to clarify unclear language and academic expectations. Tailoring my lessons this way was a challenge but such great practice for the future. I am thankful that I was able to have this small glimpse into planning and carrying out lessons that are accessible for ELL students, even though I know that I have a long way to go.

One instance that stands out in my mind was an interaction between a teacher and an ELL student outside one of my observed classes. They discussed the language ability of another English Language Learner. These two students sit next to each other in class, and the first student has been translating what the teacher says to the second student. When the teacher approached the first student in the hallway, she asked that they student stop translating for the second student because she believes this is preventing the second student from learning and practicing their English. After reflecting on this exchange, I realized that from what I observed, it was true. The second student struggled greatly with English and would speak in their first language the majority of the time without using the class as an opportunity to practice English. However, I was puzzled at the teacher’s request to the first student who was just trying to befriend and support the second student. As much as I agree that the student needs to practice their English more often, I do not think it was right to put the responsibility for the second student’s progress on the first student who was trying to help. Though I do not know the whole situation by any means, from what I saw there was hardly any language support from the teacher for the struggling student during my two short weeks. I believe this should to change, and the teacher should be more conscious to address the needs of ELL students when the lessons are designed and presented. I am curious what the best way would be to handle this situation if it arises in my classrooms in the future.

I have two considerations about Chapter eight, both of which based on the many valuable observations and reflections derived from our recent practicum experience. The first point is that, amongst all the activities proposed to build vocabulary and grammar patterns for academic writing in the Chapter, the “Written Recap” activity (p. 215) is definitely the one that I most identify with. This is because, during the practicum, I did notice that the last minutes of class are usually not productive, often turning out to be wasted on the await for the bell to ring. Hence, the “Written Recap” is a flexible activity that can lead students to reflect upon the lesson informally, thereby synthesizing and wrapping up the content. In parallel, it is also a low-risk situation in which they can use newly-acquired mortar and brick expressions. Finally, the notes yielded can be used as an excellent hook for the next class.

My second consideration is, however, a caveat about the “Written Dialogue” activity which Zwiers presents (p. 216). One of the lessons I taught in my practicum coincided with the example given by the author for this activity. In the occasion, I proposed a debate about the second amendment of the American Bill of Rights, which regards the individual right to bear arms. Although the debate was not exactly a written dialogue, I found that students’ opinions were shallow and based on common sense, after all they had not previously researched about the matter (the implications of non-restricted right to bear arms), and therefore did not have elements to build their opinion on. Thus, it is important to emphasize that any debate or perspective-taking activity must regard content which has already been worked in class, so that students have enough grounds to build solid arguments.

During the practicum there were many instances where I observed classroom teachers encouraging academic writing development as discussed in this week’s chapter. One of the most effective strategies I found in terms of student understanding and applicability is an essay outline developed by my sponsor English teacher. The structure addresses a typical literary analysis essay, breaking down into one thesis supported by 2-3 premises, each of which is supported by at least 2 proofs which are then linked back to the thesis through explicit explanations and analyses. The premise is defined by the teacher as a literary tool such as character, plot, atmosphere, etc. which form the topics of the body paragraphs of the essay; within each body paragraph, proofs — or textual evidence mostly in the form of direct quotations — are given, explained and analysed with respect to the thesis. The teacher went over this outline with three different classes: IB English 11 as well as regular English 11 and 12.

I felt this outline was effective mostly in how prescribed and methodical it was; the way the teacher presented it was almost scientific. He did stress though that top marks require more than the bare structure given. He gave some examples of where students could show their own creative flair such as in their use of language and sentence variation. In terms of addressing the needs of ELLs, I feel that giving such a solid and detailed structure for the typical English essay is extremely helpful in orienting these students who may be unfamiliar with the English academic writing style.

Lucy Yang