Reflections....

       It is hard to believe that my Yoed class is over already! For the most part, the month has gone by rather quickly. I have really enjoyed this class, and believe that I am walking away with some very useful information. I have acquired many new tools to use with ESL students, such as the Cloze Procedure and Choral Reading. I think what I have enjoyed the most and got the most out of is evaluating reading materials. After spending a good amount of time in the library researching books and different types of literature, I realized that I could spend hours searching for the perfect selection. And trust me, if I had time, I would have spent many more hours there! I can not get enough time at the library, I LOVE it!!

        Another great aspect of this class has been the on-going wiki. I definitely have a love-hate relationship with wikispaces! I have the hardest time with formatting and uploading files to it; however, it is such a wonderful tool to have. It puts everything in one place and provides a ton of great information.  I see this coming in very handy when it is time for me to take the Comp. =)

           

Evaluating Reading Materials

     Prior to taking Yoed 6020, I never really evaluated any reading materials for my students. However, I realize now that there are so many things to look for when choosing the right literature for a lesson. 

     When planning a reading lesson, or a lesson regarding a particular concept, the literature that we use is very important. Especially when selecting literature for ESL students. As teachers, we need to be sure that the literature that we are choosing is appropriate for all levels of ESL students. We must pay particular attention to the level, content, illustrations and activities that go along with the reading material.

      We want to make sure that all of our students are getting the most out of the literature we select for them. This means paying close attention to the vocabulary, the activities that the selection lends itself too, as well as the illustrations. The illustrations are a very important part of the selection. The illustrations can assist the students in comprehension, bring the story together and keep the students engaged.

       There are so many things to consider when planning a lesson. The work is worth it though, when a student is enjoying a book and learning at the same time.

         

Teaching ESL Students

    

           Before I started graduate school, I greatly underestimated what  it took to effectively teach ESL students. I guess since I do not have much personal experience with teaching ESL students, I did not understand the strategies and planning needed to reach English language learners. Throughout my graduate courses at MTSU, I have learned that there is so much that goes into the planning process as well as many variables that effect how ESL students learn. I am very excited to continue learning how I can best reach my future ESL students. With todays classroom consisting of an increasing number of English language learners, I feel that continuous professional develpment in this area is a necessity. As teachers, we need to be prepared to teach a wide variety of students, with various cultural backgroungs and various levels of language proficiency.

Multiculturalism in Schools

I really enjoyed reading Adam Waxler's article on multiculturalism in schools. So many times, we have been taught that we need to focus on including more multicultural lessons into our curriculum.  While Waxler agrees, his approach is less direct. Less direct in the sense that he does not create an entire unit, nor plan an entire month around various cultures. He infuses everyday lessons with information and assignments that include other races, genders and cultures. I think that by integrating multiculturalism this way, we are not placing it in a subject of it's own. We are not creating another subject, we are using it to enhance the ones that we already have. We should be showing our students that we should always embrace other races, genders and cultures, not just for one month, one unit, or one lesson.

When I was doing my student teaching, and planning my lessons, there were no requirements for including any type of multiculturalism into them. Only one of the teachers that I worked under encouraged including various races, genders and cultures into assignments and lessons. This made me think back to when I was in elementary, middle even high school. The only time that I can remember learning about another culture, was when I was in fourth grade and we had a 'Cultural Day'. It was one day, and we all brought in different types of food and colored flags for the corresponding country. This is the exact thing that Waxler disagrees with-and I completely understand why. We were never taught any real information about those countries, the people that lived there or their customs or traditions. The day served as no more than a party with a lot of good food. The importance of other cultures was not emphasized and therefore was lost.

I am glad that I read this article, as it has really opened my eyes about including cultures, genders and races into the curriculum. I think that it is something of continually increasing importance in our schools, and community and I want to make sure that my students are well educated about it.

Multicultural Challenges

I really had to take some time after reading the links for the blog this week before writing. I still don't think that the ideas and things that I have read have really sunk in yet. I'm shocked...


I guess I always knew that there were people who were closed-minded and racist, but after reading the Pitthissippi Burning article, it really brought it to the front of my mind. These people are not just existing, they are creating flags, literature, and how-to's to support their feelings of white nationalism. While I agree with freedom of speech, this makes me think otherwise. This type of information, (FREE on the internet!!) is more than dangerous!


It is hard for me to understand why these people feel that there is a problem with multiculturalism. It seems that the only problem is the people who are creating the issues with it. Multiculturalism is about understanding and accepting, not dominating and diminishing.


The author included a section of the free internet book, The Brigade, that discussed the children's character, Dora. Personally, I do not have a problem with my children watching Dora. However, I do know some parents/people who do. They make comments about their children being white, not Hispanic. Why do you have to be of the same ethnicity to watch a television show?

As a teacher, I think that it is important to continue to encourage our students to express how they are feeling, if that means writing a book or creating art. It is equally important to encourage and demonstrate equality to our students. Our classrooms are changing; our community is changing; our world is changing. It always has, and it always will. Why shouldn't we embrace the new and various people and cultures?

Grammar

Growing up, grammar always seemed to come easy to me. I made great grades in English with little effort. That was,until college. I took a class that required us to diagram sentences. This included naming the parts, and not just noun, verb, subject, and predicate. I mean the works! Had I missed all this in my previous years of school somewhere?

One thing that really stood out to me in that class was a project that I completed on dialects. I had never really paid any attention to dialects. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I just thought that people who spoke in different dialects were just too lazy to speak "proper" English. Also, in my research I found that we view dialects as a sign of intelligence. Those who speak a lot of slang and with heavy dialects are thought to not be as educated as those who spoke "proper". I use quotations when using the word proper, because what is seen as "proper" English today, varies from what was "proper" fifteen years ago. Even in documents and letters words such as who, and whom are becoming scarce.

I wish that I had learned more about sentence structure and parts of speech, not only when speaking, but when writing as well. I feel that I can speak "proper" English well, but I have a very hard time writing in it.
I do agree with a need for a Standard English and think that we should be teaching our students to use it. It is important to know sentence structure, spelling and vocabulary.However, I think that we should also steer our students from judging others based on their dialect.

Multicultural Education

My working definition...

     When I think about multicultural education, I think about teaching, learning, understanding and appreciating other cultures. I am sure that my definition will change throughout this semester to incorporate all of the new things that I will learn regarding it. I don't remember learning about multicultural issues in elementary, middle or even high school. It was not until about a year ago that I realized how important it is to integrate other cultures into education. I have heard that America is referred to as a 'salad-bowl' in terms of diversity. We each make up a certain component of the salad, however we are all tossed together. I think that this accurately describes most of our school settings as well.

      I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee which is located directly outside of Fort Campbell Army Base. Diversity was very common in our classrooms. When I was in fourth grade, we had a new student come from Korea. She had only been in America for six days when she started school and only knew one English word: Hi. I think when you are that young, you don't realize what those students are going through. As an adult, I often think back and wonder how hard it was for her. I try to carry this with me to remind myself of the struggles that everyone has when it comes to diversity.

Paul Gorski

      I completely agree with Gorski in terms of needing multicultural education reform. I don't think that enough is done to really embrace other cultures in our classrooms, regardless if we have students from that culture or not. I believe that there is so much more that we as teachers can do to integrate diversity into our curriculum. Gorski has a wonderful five stage model that breaks down various ways that we can integrate different cultures into our curriculum, and most with minimal resources.

     In the very first stage, Gorski describes an ongoing process that many of us struggle with: recognition. We all have different ideas, views, and working definitions about multicultural education. I don't think that it is necessarily a bad thing, as long as the need for integrating multicultural education is acknowledged and pursued.

What We Need...

      As teachers, we need to be open minded. We need to be accepting, patient and understanding of the various, wonderful cultures that surround us. We need to teach our students to have an appreciation for different cultures. And I believe that it starts with us: If we don't show an interest or appreciation for other cultures, what makes us think that our students will? We need to do our homework, meaning that we need to research and study about different cultures so that we can effectively incorporate them into our curriculum. We need to show our students how to love and appreciate all of the components of this wonderful, tasty 'salad'.