Week 3.1: Learning View vs. Acquisition View

Learning View	Both Views	Acquisition View
The Teacher: -Teaches grammar points in an orderly sequence. -Correct students when they make errors in their pronunciation or grammar. -Assigns students grammar exercises to complete as homework. -Has students segment words into phonemes. -Uses decodable texts. -Teaches Latin and Greek roots -Conducts phonics drills. -Uses a variety of worksheets to teach different skills. -Makes sure that students only read books that fit their level. The Students: -Look up words in the dictionary to write definitions. -Read in round-robin fashion. -Ask the teacher to spell any word they don’t know. -On a worksheet, draw a line from each word to the picture that starts with the same sound. -Repeat a dialogue after the teacher. -Translate the opening passage of the classic Don Quixote into English. -Memorize a list of food words. -Draw the events of a story the teacher has read in sequence. Explanation: “Teachers who hold the view that people must learn to read and write break the tasks down into their component parts and teach each part” (Freeman & Freeman, p.73). This is often done through the use of daily drills and practice. Weekly spelling test, grammar drills, and homework are the norm in a traditional learning view classroom. “Teachers in traditional classrooms emphasize the importance of producing writing that follows conventions in handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and organization.” (Freeman & Freeman, p.77). Students are critiqued more on the form of the paper than the content.	The Teacher: -Pre-teaches vocabulary. -Does a shared reading with a big book. -Sets aside time for SSR each day. -Chooses predictable texts. -Does a picture walk of a new book. -Provides students who are at different levels of proficiency with options for completing an assignment. The Students: -Make a Venn diagram to compare two stories. -Practice sounding out words. -Identify words on a big book page that start with the same sound. -Divide words into syllables. -Work in pairs to complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting birds and fish. Explanation: Both the learning view and acquisition view pre-teach vocabulary and read big books to students. SSR is a time that is a time that is set aside in both classes in order for students to given the time to independently read a book at their level (learning) and that is of their choice (acquisition). It’s essential that students have the skills to sound out words and to divide words into syllables. Students should also have practice with completing a graphic organizer, such as a Venn diagram.	The Teacher: -Involves students in role-play of historical events. -Supplements instruction with visuals and realia. -Uses gestures to help make input comprehensible. -Has students work in small groups to complete a hands-on-science experiment. -Teaches both language and content and writes both language and content objectives. -Asks students to look around the room and find words starting with a certain letter. -Teaches students different comprehension strategies. The Students: -Read a language experience story they have created with the teacher. -Work in pairs to arrange words from a familiar chant into sentences. -Make alphabet books on different topics. -Point to their hands, their feet, their head as the teacher gives them commands. -Work together to create a mural of the life and plants in the rain forest. -Act out a play they had written about the first Thanksgiving. Explanation: I noticed while completing this list that many of the activities involve students working with a peer or in a group. Role play, science experiments, acting are all interactive activities that allows the student to acquire language. “Students engage in activities designed to help them acquire language as they study subject matter content” (Freeman & Freeman, p.54). “In an acquisition classroom readers are focused on making meaning…” (Freeman & Freeman, p.75).  Comprehension strategies are taught during mini lessons in order for students to have the strategies available when reading independently during SSR time. There isn’t as much stress on spelling and grammar. Writer’s workshop provides the opportunity for students to write a rough draft, make edits, and compose a final draft that can be shared with the class. (Freeman & Freeman, p.79).
References Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2004). Second and Written Language Acquisition. In Essential linguistics: What you need to know to teach reading, ESL, spelling, phonics, and grammar (2nd ed., pp. 52-83). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Week 2.2: Children's Books Review

Entry #5: Review 2 children's books and determine what components in the book might affect comprehension because of cultural aspects. List 4 per book and tell how this schema could be taught or introduced to an ELL learner.

Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood

1. Difficulty: The student may not understand who the story is about. As adult readers, we know the story is about the little boy but an ELL learner may not pick up on that right away.

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should inform the ELL learner that the book is indeed about a little boy comparing himself to each of the animals in the story. It would be a good idea to also point this key piece of information out throughout the story, as well as at the end of the story. 

2. Difficulty: The student may not understand why there is some contradiction in this book. For example, "I'm as small as an ant, I'm as large as a whale?" The student may ask themselves, "How can you be small and big?" This may be confusing for the student to comprehend.

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should discuss with students how there are a lot of opposites in the book. It may be fun for students to recall the opposite words that were used. The teacher can hold up the picture of the boy being strong like and ox and ask students about a time when they felt really strong like an ox. Then, the teacher could hold up the picture of the boy being weak like a kitten, and ask for students to recall a time they felt weak. The importance should be on how there are times in our life we feel one way, and other times we feel the opposite way. The objective of this is for ELL students to make connections through personal experiences to text content. (Bradley & Bradley, 2004)

3. Difficulty: Similes are used throughout the book which may be a very new concept for students.

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should introduce similes before reading the book and inform students that a book will be read that has the simile I'm as ______ as a __________. "English language learners need to have an established purpose for reading something so they can evaluate whether they are successful" (Bradley & Bradley, 2004). At the end of the story, it may be fun for students to fill in the writing prompt in their own creative way and draw a picture that corresponds to the prompt. The teacher should provide scaffolding as needed. 

4. Difficulty: Students may be unfamiliar with the vocabulary words: tough, gentle, brave, and tame. 

• Teaching Schema: The teacher could introduce these vocabulary words before the story or explain them during the story. An ELL learner may learn best by imitating the actions with the class. Show being gentle and tame together since they are closely related. Show pictures of fire fighters, police officers and discuss why they are considered to be brave. Have students act wild and crazy and then tell them to be calm to demonstrate what it means to be tame. 

2. Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle

1. Difficulty: There are steps at the beginning of the book that the student is supposed to do before reading in order to fully enjoy the story. The steps are written within a paragraph unnumbered which makes it a little more difficult to follow each of the steps. Since this is supposed to be completed before reading the story, it's essential the student is able to do it in order to comprehend the story.

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should number the steps in the text and provide it on a slip of paper for students who are planning on reading the book. Numbering the steps will help the ELL learner to read the steps more carefully. 

2. Difficulty: There is a single dot is on every other page. This may be confusing to students and make it difficult to comprehend the story.

• Teaching Schema: It would be recommended for the teacher to do a picture walk through the book without reading any of the text. At the end of the picture walk, "ask students to write down what they think the text is about, based on the pictures alone" (Bradley & Bradley, 2004). This way, ELL students aren't focusing on the dot alone, but are thinking about the pictures of the animals in the book and making predictions about what the story could be about. Students could make predictions about the meaning of the dot once they have made a solid prediction on the meaning of the story as a whole. 

3. Difficulty: The text reads one color of animal when the picture shows a different color of animal. For example, there is a picture of a green fox on the page, but the text reads about a red fox. 

• Teaching Schema: Again, this should also be explained to students before reading the story. Even though there is a green fox on the page, if you look closely enough the red fox can be seen. It would be recommended for ELL students to work collaboratively in a small group of 2-3 students. (Bradley & Bradley, 2004). 

4. Difficulty: The student may have difficulty with understanding why there is a picture of a wheel at the beginning and end of the book that has a lot of color on it. 

• Teaching Schema: The teacher should introduce the color wheel and explain what it means to the story. Students should be given time to practice blending colors together to make a new color. The obective for ELL students is to interrelate concepts using a structured overview and visuals. (Bradley & Bradley, 2004). 

This book is also written in Spanish so it may be fun to have a Spanish speaking parent read it to the whole class.  

References

Bradley, K., & Bradley, J. (2004). Scaffolding Academic Learning for Second Language Learners. The Internet TESL Journal, X(5).  

 Carle, E. (2001). Hello, Red Fox. New York, New York: Aladdin.  

Wood, A., & Wood, D. (1982). Quick as a cricket. New York, New York: Child's Play (International).  

Week 2.1: Making Meaning out of an Unfamilar Text

Entry #4: Read a text that is written in an unfamiliar language. Find a way to make meaning. Do whatever you have to do to make this text comprehensible. Now scale back the difficulty of the text. How far back do you have to go until you understand what you are reading. What did you do make meaning? What are the implications to teacher? Make a list of the strategies you used and post findings/thoughts on your blog. 

I read Los Viajes which is a Spanish text I found online about travel. The first time I read it, I didn't really understand anything except a few words here and there. Some Spanish words are similar to English words such as familia (family), pasaporte (passport), and camara (camera). I knew I would have to "dig" deeper in order to comprehend this text. The text had 10 paragraphs in total and my goal was to work on comprehending each one individually. I began with paragraph one and dissected each word until I was able to make meaning out of one sentence.  I was able to figure out on my own a few of the words, and was able to make some more sense out of the sentence when using a Spanish dictionary. I knew it would take too long to look each word up in the dictionary, so I would only look up what was needed. Once I figured out what paragraph one was talking about, I read it over on my own 2-3 times in order for the meaning to really stick. I did this with each of the 10 paragraphs which took a long time! For each paragraph that I made meaning out of, I would go back to read not only the paragraph again, but also the whole text up to that point. I was easily frustrated because I would forget the meaning of a certain phrase or word and have to look it up again. I looked up por lo tanto which means although in English at least 5 times! The vocabulary words that were used throughout the text and typed in bold ink were helpful because once I knew the definition, it helped with making meaning of the text. An hour and a half later, I finally comprehended the whole text.

List of strategies that were used during my reading:

• Repetition-rereading each paragraph I made meaning out of and then rereading the whole text
• Using a Spanish dictionary only when needed
• "Dissecting" each word, sentence, paragraph
• Defining each of the vocabulary words

While doing this reading, I thought about students who experience this level of frustration everyday when exposed continuously to a language that is unfamiliar to them. I work at a school where about 65% of the students are English Language Learners. Students are sent home homework that has English on one side and Spanish on the other. Any information (letters, newsletters, menus, etc.) that is sent home is in English and Spanish. Students are encouraged to read books that are in English and Spanish.  Furthermore, after doing this reading, I realized how important the gift of time is and to provide ample time for students to read and write when being exposed to a new language. Also, keep the reading or writing short and build upon it over time.

"One implication of this for teaching is that language that would normally be beyond students' comprehension is much more likely to be understood when students can bring their experiences and understandings as a basis for intrepretation" (Gibbons, p.49). I was able to comprehend the reading more when I could use some of my experience with preparing for a vacation while reading the text. If the text would have been in an unfamilar language and about an unfamilar subject, it would have been very difficult to comprehend.

References

Gibbons, Pauline. Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2002. Print.

  

Los Viajes - Lectura. (n.d.). Retrieved May 11, 2015, from http://www.spanish.cl/Vocabulary/Notes/Viajes.htm  

Week 1.3: Relationship between Oral Language and the Reading Process

Entry #3: Comment on the relationship between oral language and the reading process as it applies to ELL students.

Oral language is directly correlated  to learning how to read and write. When teaching any subject, its important that the teacher provides the vocabulary associated with the subject, has the student read about the subject, and provides ample discussion time of the subject preferably in a small group. "Language learners are not simply processors of input or producers of output but speaker/hearers engaged in a collaborative process through which they build grammatical, expressive, interactional, and cultural competence" (Freeman & Freeman, p.13).

I like Haliday's method for teaching English Language Learners literacy which is known as the curriculum cycle. There are four phases. If I was teaching about Lewis and Clark to a class of fourth graders, the first phase would be to activate students' prior knowledge and build upon existing knowledge. (Freeman & Freeman, p.13) I could do this by having students use oral language to interact with each other in small groups. The second phase would be to provide students a text about Lewis and Clark and discuss it using oral language. During the third phase, I would ask students to write in their journals a reflection on what they learned from the reading of Lewis and Clark. The fourth and final phase would ask students to create a story of their own that is based off of Lewis and Clark's journey. I may even ask students to read aloud their published story. Of course this method could be used with any subject and does a fantastic job of connecting oral language and reading.

The goal is for students to learn through collaboration. "...both teachers and students are seen as active participants, and learning is seen as a collaborative endeavor" (Gibbons, p.10). The teacher can not be seen as  the primary "talker;" students must be given ample time to collaborate with the teacher as well as their peers. During reading, students use oral language to ask and answer questions aloud with a partner. The teacher should provide students activities such as those found in Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning that allow for English Language Learners to use oral language, reading, as well as other skills to collaborate with other students.

References

Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding Language and Learning. In Scaffolding language and scaffolding learning: Teaching second language learners in the mainstream classroom (pp.1-13). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

 Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2014). How Linguists Study Language. In Essential linguistics: What teachers need to know to teach (Second ed., pp. 1-20). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.  

Week 1.2: Reflection of Writing Instruction

Entry #2: Reflect on the writing instruction you have received. Which view of writing described in this chapter corresponds most closely to your experiences?

The writing instruction I had growing up most closely resembles the Learning View. I was taught how to use correct grammar and spelling through a series of exercises including spelling tests and worksheets. "Students practice language by engaging in oral drills and written exercise" (Freeman & Freeman, p.55). There was a lot of practice with identifying each part of the sentence including the subject, verb, and noun. The teacher would grade the assignments and mark the ones that are wrong and write the correct answer next to it. I remember receiving school papers that had red ink all over them due to incorrect grammar. "Since the emphasis is on developing correct language forms, teachers correct errors immediately" (Freeman & Freeman, p.56). I remember being a really good speller and even came in second place in my school's spelling bee. Repetition was key to me learning how to spell words. One homework assignment was writing each of the weekly spelling words three times each. I also remember using a dictionary to write the definition of each word.

I enjoyed writing when I was younger and still love to write! In fact, I have kept either a diary or journal since I was 9 years old. It's fun to look back at my very first diary to see the progression of my writing. I did a writing project while earning my Bachelor's degree that allowed me to reflect on my writing throughout the years and my old diaries and journals really came in handy to see how my writing has changed throughout the years.

References

 Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2014). Second and Written Language Acquisition. In Essential linguistics: What teachers need to know to teach (Second ed., pp. 52-83). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.  

Week 1.1: Discussion about Teaching Literacy to English Language Learners

Entry #1: Discuss with another teacher, his/her philosophies about teaching literacy to English Language Learners.

I spoke with my colleague, Ms. Kelley about teaching literacy to English Language Learners (ELL). We both teach at Silverthorne Elementary School in Silverthorne, Colorado in the preschool classroom.Half of the students in our classroom are Hispanic.

Ms. Kelley told me that repetition is key to teaching ELL's. She reads the same big book throughout the week. The first day, she will do a picture walk through the story. The second day, she will read the story to students. The third day, she will have students help her read the story. The fourth day, she will read the story again and have students do a fun project to go along with the story. For example, this past week we read the original story of The 3 Little Pigs in class. On the fourth day, students chose to make either pig ears or wolf ears. Then, they reenacted the story out on the playground. The pigs even chose a shelter for the wolves to try to blow their "house" down. 

Ms. Kelley also mentioned the importance of songs and finger plays when teaching literacy to ELL's. While teaching kindergarten, I loved singing songs with my students. During calendar time, we did "The Months of the Year," "Days of the Week," and other calendar songs. Ms. Kelley enjoys doing nursery rhyme songs including, "Five Little Frogs," "Five Little Ducks," and other songs. She uses little toy ducks, frogs, and other animals to reenact the nursery rhyme/song. The students love it and will often times sing along! 

The third element to teaching literacy to ELL's that Ms. Kelley and I discussed was using visuals. When introducing new vocabulary, Ms. Kelley will often show students a picture. She will sometimes use the projector to show a picture or will show a picture that she has already printed off. She will also while reading a story do motions to demonstrate what something means. For example, today the word freezing was used in a story and she said burr... while putting her hands over her chest. Students were quickly able to figure out that freezing is another way of saying cold.