Blog Entry 4

Upon enrolling in this class, I thought I would have had a lot of background knowledge on this subject because I was once and English language learner and English was my second language. But after actually doing the quizzes, blogs, and research, I came to find out that I actually knew very little about what it takes to actually teach, assess, and understand English language learners. I learned about a lot of different methods and strategies to instruct them, such as the grammar-translation method, series and direct methods, audiolingual method, community language learning, suggestopedia, silent way, and total physical response and the natural approach. I know how I was taught French physically, but I did not know that there was actually research behind it and a name for it. The grammar-translation method is a classroom where the teacher is the controller, and the main goals for learning are vocabulary memorization, grammar rules, translation of passages, and reading proficiency (Brown & Lee, 2015, pg. 36). There were a couple weaknesses with this method, that I found to be accurate from my learnings, such as no oral practice/fluency and reliance on memorization.

There are a lot of different English language learners in the world today, and there are a lot of different strategies and techniques to teach them. I have come to realize that not all ELLs are the same, and they all do not learn in the same way. You must do your research on your students, and see what works best for them and implement that technique or method in your teachings. When it comes to assessing them, there are many different tests that can be used in a classroom. There are things called “traditional tests” such as norm-referenced scores, focus on the “right answer”, summative, or non-interactive performance, and then there are “alternatives in assessment” such as criterion-referenced scores, open-ended, creative answers, formative, and interactive performance (Brown & Lee, 2015, pg. 507). ELLs need accommodations and modifications in assessing and instructing because not only are they learning new content, but they are also having to learn another language. This can be very difficult for students, which is why it is important to provide differentiated instruction and be sure to implement strategies such as visual aids, slowed speech, and one-on-one interactions.

I think this class will impact my professional practice positively. I have learned a great deal about different methods of teaching and assessing, and I know that every student is different and unique in their own way. Knowing this, I must be able to prepare myself for different ELLs and find what method of learning fits them best. There are new techniques and methods emerging every day, and it is my job as an educator to stay up-to-date on these new techniques so that I can do my job to the best of my ability. I think all of the aspects or topics in this course were tied together, and they were all of equal importance. There was not a topic that I felt should have gotten more or less attention, and I think I learned a lot during each chapter/unit.

This course affected my teaching philosophy in that I will be more open-minded to new and improved teaching methods, because I think that that really affected my learning when I was learning another language in high school. I think my teacher was stuck on one method, or that was the only method she knew, and that’s why she taught all of the students in the same way. I understand that it might be easier to stick to one method and teach it to all of the students, but I don’t believe that it is most effective. As I have mentioned over and over again, all students, including ELLs, learn differently and it is our duty as educators to make sure that we are able to give them the knowledge that they need to be successful. Even if it makes our jobs harder, it is what we signed up to do as educators and it is important that we do our jobs.

I think the use of blogs in this course was helpful, and interactive. I liked being able to read other classmates’ thoughts and ideas, and listening to different ELL teachers’ insight on their ELL classrooms. Having us post 3 academic comments on our fellow classmates’ blogs, and an additional 7 comments after that, was a little bit tedious, but I felt like it really helped with collaborative learning. It felt like an actual classroom, instead of an “online” classroom. I think that the blogs really helped us to interact with one another and it was a way of getting constructive criticism, or to get us to think more about what we initially posted. In my future classroom, I may use something like this (depending on the grade level that I am given), but maybe to a lesser extent (i.e. less additional comments, and maybe only the academic comments). Overall, the class was very informative and I learned a lot, but I think that the work load may have been a little much.