Ch. 4

"The classroom teacher is responsible for presenting the material in an understandable way, arranging for students to participate in learning activities, and then measuring the extent of the student's mastery of the material" (Diaz-Rico, 70). This statement was taken from the performance-based learning.  Teachers tend to teach based off the performance of their students or their students' achievement.  Standards-based teaching is when teachers tend to teach from the standards that were setup by the state.  English-Language Development Standards (ELD) were established to ensure that EL students become proficient in the English language as well as the concepts and skills which are intertwined in the ELA.  The areas that the ELD covers are reading, writing, and listening/speaking.

The identification procedures for EL students start with a home language survey.  This way the school can gain information from the home, observations made by the teachers, as well as any interviews or referrals made by other staff members.When the survey is complete, the bilingual staff will then assess the students for present level of language acquisition.  After the administration of the assessment, the teacher will receive the results with the current levels.  Having such information is suppose to guide the teacher in their teaching.

I currently have a student that has been placed in a mild/moderate special education class.  As I was searching her records, I found that during her initial special education assessment process that the School Psychologist skipped assessing her in her L1. She was tested in English, which are primarily biased tests that are hard for EL students to read, understand, etc. I continue to question if she truly had a disability at that time.


The following article was researched in regards to teacher preparation in classrooms that have more than one language.

Steele, T. (2010). Teachers serving English Learners: Preparation and practice in linguistically diverse classrooms. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A, 70, Retrieved from EBSCOhost..

Ch. 3

"Learning a second language involves the whole person.  When a word or phrase comes out exactly right, accurate and appropriate for the situation, the whole person benefits. Educators who devote their attention to the whole learner reap the reward of rich person-to-person interaction.  Such education draws on philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology" (Diaz-Rico, 35).  I start this blog with this quote because my response to it would be, "HOW"?  How can we as educators hit on each area and build the L2, while addressing the needs of the rest of the class, their individualized IEP goals, behavioral issues, and all the duties we take on just because of our job description.  As I continued reading, I relaxed some as the theories were discussed.

I love the IDEA of behavorism, however it would not be a good fit in a special education classroom.  ALthough I think we all could use some of the concepts in our day to day teaching practices; however we would not take the entire theory as the main strategy to our teaching practices.  Behaviorism focuses on the external rewards and incentives.  Obviously we need to reward the positive and punish the negative, however, how would this address the individualized need for each student?

This is where costructivism comes in to play.  We may continue to work on the students behaviors, however using this teaching strategy focuses more ont he students takling responsibility for their own learning.  The students themselves will drive the content of lessons and the instructional strategies used. All students deal with complex situations and the teacher offers their support.  The students and teacher share the responsibility of what it taught/learned in the classroom and setting goals together.  The teacher uses manipulatives that are tailored to the students’ needs and levels to gain understanding.   The students focus more on critical thinking through class discussions, asking questions, pair sharing, and presenting ideas to one another to solve different types of problems.  This view helps elementary students keep their curiosity and love for learning.  The EL students develop their language skills through authentic discussion, and as they read, talk, write, and listen to the other students and the teacher.

I found a website that focuses on creating constructivist lesson plans.  Take a look at the lesson plans and see how you can have a more constructivist approach in your class room!  http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/lp_elem1.html

Ch. 1 & 2

'The term English Learners simply means those who are learning English as nonnative speakers' (Diaz-Rico 2).  English Learners can be two different types of students; the first, ESL meaning English as the Second Language and secondly EFL meaning English as a foreign language.  It is becoming more clear that language teaching is interwoven with language planning.  All around the world English is taught to students to make them more marketable in their own countries.  However in the US, the schools focus more on students acquiring the language and conforming to the culture and standards. 'The first challenge is to teach English effectively, to motivate English learners to achieve the highest possible level of proficiency under the circumstances, and to gain a sensitive and complex understanding of the target culture' (Diaz-Rico 15).  Many theorists believed that the proper use of a language would help students gain social power, justice, awareness, and equity.  I never realized how El students live and breathe in such discriminating environments.  I never thought about how different their lives and education must be.  These chapters not only opened my eyes as to what other students are going through, but that this has been a hot topic for years!  It saddens me to think that the EL students in my classroom may not feel equitable to the other students, I will be keeping a closer eye on their behaviors and how others treat them. This website outlines many colleges and programs that are available to those students wanting to learn English, or further their education in teaching strategies of EL students.   http://www.esl.com/

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This is my first blog for a new course I am enrolled in through CSUSB. I am a terrible blogger, however being that it is mandatory, my lack of habit should improve!