In the second section, I provide artifacts to demonstrate my understanding of each domain of the TESOL standards. Learners should be exposed to the richness of L2 language use and increase their awareness of the interaction between the mother tongue and the target language. Extrinsic goals refer to language use outside the classroom, while intrinsic goals refer to students' language proficiency and mental development (Cook, 2005).
Planning
Based on the knowledge that English language learners can bring to the classroom, I adapted the lesson plan and included another learning objective to encourage different interpretations of the poem. For example, in my curriculum I encouraged students to compare their recordings with Frost's and with their classmates. This activity tries to inform them that individual interpretation is acceptable, and further ELLs get an opportunity to reveal their own way of dealing with cultural and linguistic meanings.
In the other example, The Five-Word Picture Poem, in the second class session, students had to write their own poems using rhymes. During this grade period, the curriculum requires students to identify figures of speech and analyze the structures of a poem. To assess students' understanding of the poem and their ability to use reading strategies, I use both formative and summative assessment in various forms.
It involves making comparisons and visual maps, creating a comic strip and multilingual poems, and a final project to write down their understanding of the poem after three lessons. All assessments in the lesson plan require students to re-engage consciously with reading strategies that are practiced in the classroom so that the strategies serve as long-term scaffolding as students encounter different texts.
Instructing
As their discussion went on, several couples showed great interest in the other's cultural backgrounds and why the dish was made that way. As an ELL teacher, it is important to choose relevant topics and plan teaching opportunities so that I can place my learners in a purposeful and mutual learning environment where they show curiosity about different cultures and respect for each other. Not only does this show that I have high expectations of my learners, but I also see curriculum as an adaptive way to facilitate learning instead of some benchmarks that students must achieve.
It is a step backwards in education if objectives are replaced by standards (Fisher and Frey, 2011). With clear learning objectives, I know exactly what to assess and whether an assessment I identify can reveal what students have mastered. The activity I designed required students to apply their new knowledge in a meaningful and productive conversation in pairs.
It is acceptable or even productive for students to make mistakes and have the time and support to correct them, leading to a more solid understanding, known as productive failure (Kapur, 2008). To align with this work, it conveys my intention to use assessment - to assess what students know and teach them to grow from their mistakes.
Assessing
Sorting through all the collected data on classroom performance and student ratings is a time-consuming task, but it proves worth the effort. In the case study, I observed my student's interaction with the teacher in the classroom, her performance on classroom assignments and assessments. In my future teaching, I will continue to gather and collect direct and valuable data to further my understanding of student learning progress.
Collecting data and evidence of student learning also creates more grouping opportunities that could benefit student learning and a productive learning environment. I will require my students to regularly reflect on their learning and do self-assessments so that I am able to collate their reflections to periodically adapt the curriculum to their needs and concerns. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the assessment I design and use is less biased toward my ELLs.
To meet the expectation, I strongly embrace the use of authentic assessment and will use it more in my future ESL teaching. It is part of the instruction and reflects individual progress within the learning context (Hurley and Tinajero, 2001).
Identity and Context
As an ELL teacher, I understand that most of my English language learners come from lower- and middle-class families. With a greater knowledge of students' family, community, and cultural backgrounds, I could better create a supportive learning environment for my ELLs. Building on my work, I discover that teaching is just a small part embedded in a complex network of different participants, power relations, and cultural traditions and expectations that influence teaching and learning.
As an ELL teacher, I understand that the curriculum and assessment design do not reflect the needs of my English language learners. Therefore, with a larger context in mind, I could use this “context knowledge” to better read the curriculum and assessment. To close the gap between what the curriculum wants me to teach and what the assessment wants me to assess and what my students know, I will make the content material more understandable and provide opportunities for ELLs to access their first languages and cultural resources.
With regard to assessment, another overarching point is the way I interpret what English language proficiency means for people learning English. My job, in accordance with my own beliefs, is to design curricula and assessments that can demonstrate that unique perspective.
Language Proficiency
I finally attached my resume to present my knowledge of language and formatting based on writing purpose (See Artifact M). My English language skills as shown above strongly aligns with my belief of what good language skills are as mentioned by Brandl linguistic competence, the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, 2) sociolinguistic competence, the ability to function appropriately in social occasions, 3 ) discourse competence, the ability to conduct a conversation in a consistent and coherent manner, and 4) strategic competence, the ability to recover. To realize the four goals, I integrate academic content and language learning skills into the curriculum around me.
I design oral and written assignments that combine more than one reading, listening, writing and speaking. They are encouraged to communicate their needs and ideas in and out of the classroom despite their likely limited English skills. I will try to bring real-world situations into my classroom and ask students to talk based on the context they are in.
Learning
By learning from the interaction between Cindy and her teacher, I will establish meaningful relationships with all my learners. More than that, however, I embrace culturally responsive caring for my learners by modeling academic, social, moral, and personal behaviors and values for them to emulate (Gay, 2010). With my knowledge of language subsystems and second language acquisition theories, I collected her language use examples and analyzed oral and written performance in detail.
My knowledge of language and second language acquisition gives me a clear picture of her learning progress. Students may show different rates of language development and based on this I could devise individualized, effective instruction and strategies to meet their learning needs. Despite cultural differences, native students are willing to serve as “ambassadors” to help ELLs learn the language and become comfortable with their new environment.
It is also very important to use my knowledge of second language acquisition when designing and assessing curricula. Therefore, by reflecting students' stage of language acquisition and adapting the curriculum and assessment, I help them move through the levels of acquisition and create possible scenarios in which they can tap into and promote their higher-level thinking skills.
Content
As the class went on, she continued to relate the topic to their own life experience and created a situation for couples to practice new words and sentence patterns, which helps them make the most of what they experience every day that calls for opportunities communication. Further, the communicative approach makes the transition from receptive language use to productive language use. In fact, I'm thinking about finding authentic foreign language resources that can relate to the curriculum and students' prior knowledge so that what I'm teaching makes more sense to my students.
This not only allows students to consciously process the information they see or hear every day, but also reduces the discrepancy between the curriculum designed to teach English and the authentic contexts in which they live. I encourage authentic assessment that emphasizes what students know rather than what they don't know. In a GES class, I asked students to describe their favorite dish to assess what they had learned in that class (see Artifact B).
This is part of my teaching as well as an authentic assessment that allows students to develop their own answers. In future teaching, I will continue to use authentic assessment as the primary means of monitoring my learners' learning progress.
Commitment and Professionalism
As a graduate student at Peabody, the top educational institution in the US, it may be insulting to say that I wasn't meant to become a teacher to start my career. I see my classroom as a laboratory where I can test different theories and discover which ones work for my students. I want my students to feel the power of language, not only through a linguistic lens, but also through a social and cultural practice that takes place in my classroom.
I will post my students' work on the classroom wall to remind them how good they are. I want my students to love language and feel the chemical reaction of language acquisition on them. I want my students to be not only successful language learners, but also critical thinkers to be part of the world community.
Considering the growing number of English language learners in the country, I am very concerned about how I can really help them and their community to accommodate the new environment. I suggest that local government work with diverse communities to launch projects that can involve English language learners studying in the schools. I want my students to feel valued for their unique ability to transfer between two or more languages.
Thanks to the past two years of study in the English language program, it allows me to discover the true meaning of education for me.
