Norton & Pavlenko

               I was not too surprised by what the researchers found from their studies, but I was interested to read about what they found at the end of their study. One thing they found out about language learners was that language teachers need to help them claim the right to speak outside of the classroom. Many students struggle to use their second language outside the classroom because they are nervous to mess up, they do not feel comfortable using it outside the classroom yet; the list goes on and on. It is important for the teacher to help the students feel comfortable to use their target language outside of the classroom. Obviously most of the student’s goals are to use the language in the community so they can communicate with everyone, but they need to get to the point where they are comfortable to do so; and that is where the teacher can come in and help.

            One article talked about the classroom-based social research, which engages the students social identities that will help them use and improve on their target language outside the classroom. Second language learners are able to do this with support from their language teacher. Especially with second language learners, teachers have to play a huge role in motivating and helping the students move forward with their target language. However, in the second article they found that motivation does not translate good language learning. I was interested to read that because usually motivation is a huge factor of language learning. 

Hinkel, Kumar, Wintergerst

           I really liked how the beginning of Kumar’s article started. It started with some quotes that got me thinking about what culture is and how it is viewed differently amongst everyone. I liked the quote from Mary Catherine Bateson, “…cultural gap between members of different generations within the same family…” (Kumar, 8). I have found this statement to be very within my own family. Everyone in my family believes in our religion and cultural background, but there is definitely a gap between the generations. My grandparents have very different views on what should be practiced than do my parents than do my siblings and I. Although it sometimes causes conflicts within the family, when it comes down to it, we all believe in many of the same things within our culture and share all of our traditions together.

            It is a teacher’s job and it is important to apply what the kids have learned in the classroom to their lives outside the classroom. I liked learning about the different techniques to help students reduce stress with cultural adjustments. I think it is important to help students learn different cultures that are being practiced by other students or where they currently live, but it is extremely important to let the students keep their culture and identity with them. You as a teacher do not want your students to lose their identity especially when they are new to the area. You want your students to feel comfortable in your classroom and making them comfortable with their own culture and everyone else’s culture will make them feel that much more comfortable. 

Morgan Articles

            This article really put culture into perspective for me. I have never heard of the five dimensions of culture, but they perfectly described the different aspects of what culture is. As I was reading through the different dimensions, I thought about my own culture and how it relates to me. I thought about all the different artifacts that my family and people in my religion have taken in because we are members of our culture. There are many different practices we partake in as a culture and that is a huge part of who we are. The different ceremonies, events, parties, celebrations, holidays, etc. are all part of the practices and traditions we partake in every year. The perspectives of a culture are all the beliefs and values the community has towards their culture. The community is the group of people that carry on the cultural practices and passes them on from generation to generation. The community is what makes the culture stay alive and it is how the traditions are passed on from generation to generation. The persons are the individual members of the culture. I am a person that keeps my culture going because I believe in everything my religion and culture is about.

            The articles talked about how language is everywhere, but when it comes to the classroom setting, language and culture need to be treated separately otherwise it becomes too complex. When you are learning a language, students learn the culture along with it, but not at the same time. It is not wise to teach the culture while teaching the language. Culture is something that can be picked up or understood quickly once you are learning the language. It is smart for teachers to use language in order for the students to learn the culture that goes with it. I think students, especially young ones, can quickly pick up on language and as long as they can do that, I believe culture comes right along with it. 

blog 11/26

            I feel very strongly about testing and assessment, so these readings had things I liked and I did not like about testing students. Tests are a very difficult task for teachers to succeed with. It takes a lot of time to come up with a test that contains the five basic principles of language assessment that were talked about in Brown’s book. It is important to have practicality, be reliable and valid, authenticity, and washback. It can be a difficult task to include all of these above principles and have a good test. You can have a test without one of these, but then it may not be reliable or valid which does not effectively assess your students.

            In my opinion, many of the different kinds of tests are important and necessary, but I do not agree with all of them. I specifically feel strong about the ACT and tests like those because I do not believe students should only be tested on information to decide whether or not they make it into a college. I think there are so many reasons behind that why that is not an accurate way to admit students into a university because there are so many other aspects in a student’s education that could go into them being an accurate fit for a certain school.

            I think other tests such as, achievement tests and placement tests, to name a few are very helpful and necessary in the school systems. Placement tests are important, so that students are being placed in classes that are specific to their needs. If we did not use placement tests than students could be placed in a class too hard or too easy for them, which would make a student, fall behind or become bored.

            Achievement tests are also helpful because they allow teachers to see how children are progressing throughout the year. This allows them to decide whether to move on and continue with the curriculum/unit, or if they need to slow down and review something that the students may not have understood so well. Although testing is not my favorite, I believe it is necessary in the school system to see the students’ progress throughout the year and their education.

            Along with that, the tests need to be constructed correctly in order for the students to be tested in a good manner. The steps that Brown talked about are important for teachers to follow because it allows them to write an appropriate test for their students. I think a lot of teachers pull tests together and do not spend the time on reviewing them and double and triple checking them. There have been many times where a classmate or me has found a mistake on a teacher’s test and it throws students off. Students work hard on their homework and projects, I think teachers should take the same time while making tests and grading assignments.

            Testing is a difficult task for teachers and a decision teachers get to make (whether or not to do it), but there should be steps they should follow to succeed in doing so. 

11.11 blog

           I was able to connect to a lot of different points they talked about while writing lesson plans and by evaluating your lessons. Brown talked about how it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of your lessons. It is always important to evaluate yourself, the students, and the actual lesson after performing a lesson with your class because you want to decide whether or not you can use it again. We have been taught over and over again in our education classes about how important it is to evaluate yourself after because if the students ended up not liking or, did not understand, or you found it difficult to teach, then there is no use in using that lesson plan again. It is especially important with second language learners because they are already learning something difficult, so a lesson they are learning for the day does not need to be complicated or confusing to make it even more difficult for them. Although you want to challenge them, you do not want to make lessons anymore complex or confusing for them than it already is.

            Something that is important in all lesson plans is the objective(s). The objectives are what the students are going to get out of the lesson being taught. It is important to make the objectives obtainable to each student. You want to be sure that your objective(s) are very clear to you and your students. An example of an objective is, “students will be able to count out loud to the number 10, three out of the five times they practice”. You want to be precise about what you expect from the students to learn after doing the lesson you planned.

            Kumar talked about when a teacher evaluates the effectiveness of their teaching, they can make sense of what happens in their classroom. Teachers need to take control of their classroom and learn how to prepare and evaluate their lessons correctly. Sometimes it may be really easy for a teacher to put a quick lesson together for their students, but it takes a devoted teacher to look back after all their lessons and think about whether it was effective or not. They need to continuously develop new and improved lessons that work for their individual students. Although a lesson worked one year with your set of students, the next year you may have completely different students and they may learn differently than your students from the year before.

            Although it is important to look at the specific lessons and decide whether they are effective or not, it is also really important to look at the bigger picture; evaluate your lessons and decide whether they are embedded in the overall goals of the curriculum. It’s important to make your lessons appropriate for your class, students, and individual children, but it is also important and necessary to embed it into the overall goal of the curriculum.

            There are very important aspects that go into making lessons and teaching your students a certain way. You cannot continuously use the same lessons year after year because students are different and you have to teach each individual as the unique person they are.