TCH 306- Before We Start

Before We Start: Code Switch

In the book it states that, ""lay down the red pen and use successful strategies--contrastive analysis and code-switching--for teaching Standard English grammar in linguistically diverse classrooms." I think this is so so important for everyone, but especially ELL learners. In my class with Dr. Hurd, we talked a lot about the role of confidence in students attempting to incorporate themselves into the classroom while learning a completely new language. If we are constantly "using our red pen," and telling them what they did wrong, they will become nervous to even try because they're scared of failure. This lack of validation and confidence will cause them to shut down, and not even want to attempt to try to become proficient. Instead of telling them what they did wrong, we can acknowledge where they're coming from, and congratulate them for their attempt. For testes or other graded work, we could allow them to use pictures or their voices to complete their work. It is much harder for ELL students to learn how to speak a language in comparison to writing a language. Writing is an extremely important skill and we need to encourage it, but it's not fair to fail them time and time again because it may not be the content they're not understanding, they may just have trouble relaying their answers through writing. This is why I feel like accommodations are so important for not just students with disabilities, but ELL students as well. One thing you could have a student do is have them complete the test as everyone else, but then after go through it with them and read them the questions/ask for verbal responses. Then you can help them identify areas in their writing where they struggled to convey the correct meaning, and help them work through that. I also liked using the T-chart to help ELL students explain formal and informal language. All languages have slang, and this can be very confusing for ELL students. Going through their work with them and having them pick out all the informal language they used and make a t-chart with the formal version could help them to write more formally, which is an important skill in school. I think what it comes down to the most is not just marking off points and telling students which questions they got wrong, but instead having them explain their thinking and helping pick out the flaws in their thought process. With diverse learners, it is so important to get to know them on a personal level, so they know you care. Ask them questions about their homeland/languages/cultures, allow them the opportunity to preserve those cultures while still accumulating them to American life. We need to make sure that we praise diverse learners/ELL students when they do something good, so they don't think we're out to get them every time we correct them.

Before You Start Week 4

To be honest. I was not a huge fan of the worksheet. Assuming this is for middle school, some of the questioned seemed kind of pointless, and just like busy work. For example, the questions asking what job he had and where the study was done seemed very irrelevant. The goal of the lesson is to teach students about grit, so why does his job and where he did the study matter? I think those type of questions are not beneficial in a middle school classroom. I could see them potentially being used in elementary school to test reading comprehension, but it just seems pointless for a middle school. I also don't think the article had to be split up like that. It seemed a little chaotic and unorganized. It think middle school students have the ability to read a full article, and then pull out the information needed to answer questions. I think that there are much better questions you could ask that would help students understand grit. I also think there should be a question asking to explain grit to people. Another thing that I think would help kids stay engaged is by asking them to share experiences where they've worked hard and it has paid off. I feel like this would make the lesson more relatable for students, and it will be a chance for them to gain confidence by sharing their successes. I also don't really like the filling in the chart. It kind of seemed like busy work to me. Overall, I was not a big fan of the worksheet.

Before You Start Week 6

I liked the article a lot. One think that stood out to me was when it was talking about the third space and how there's no unity and fixity of language. This made me think about discourse because the discourses we come from effect a lot of things, including how we speak. This also made me think about the class discussion where someone said that there isn't really a right or wrong way of speaking. Some cultures speak English differently, and we should respect that instead of always harping on people to speak "the white mans English." In the text it said that, "Academic texts can limit some students’ learning as they struggle to reconcile different ways of knowing, doing, reading, writing, and talking with those that are privileged in their classrooms." Every student learns differently, and every student reads differently. If we only provide one type of text, students who struggle to read will miss out. We need to offer writing from other different cultures. One way I think I could do this in a ELA classroom is by having a variety of books written from people of color or from different cultures. This will allow students to read a variety of text, and be more open minded to people who speak differently than them. I also really liked when it said, "Finally, third space can be viewed as a space of cultural, social, and epistemological change in which the competing knowledges and Discourses of different spaces are brought into “conversation” to challenge and reshape both academic content literacy practices and the knowledges and Discourses of youths’ everyday lives." I like how he says cultural, social, and epistemological, because it is important for us to let students bring their own lives and cultures into the classroom and activate their prior knowledge. I was super interested that the article was science, because I don't have much experience with that. I had never really thought about how important literacy is in science. In the text, it said, "Being literate in a content area also requires some basic processing skills, such as decoding and encoding, as well as the ability to comprehend ideas in a text by linking them with or contrasting them to one’s own ideas about a phenomenon." After reading this, I can see how important literacy is in science. If students know how to read efficiently, make connections, and decode the authors purpose and theme, it will be much easier for them to complete science projects.

I definitively read this text differently than I would a book. If I am reading a novel, I am not really trying to pick out key information, I am really just reading and soaking in the words. However, since this was a more academic text, I was taking notes and copying and pasting quotes into a google doc. Also, after each page I would do a summary in my head of what was said, and if I was confused on a part I'd go back and reread it. While reading this text, I felt a little overwhelmed because it wasn't the easiest read and there was a lot of information. Oftentimes I would get distracted and have to go back and reread, which was frustrating. To be honest, my attitude going into it wasn't great because it looked really long and I was super tired when I started reading it. This made me feel more distracted and I found myself having to read over and over. So, after a couple pages I stopped and decided to do it the next day. That day I had a much better attitude, so the text was easier to focus on and comprehend. The role of discourse was definitively apparent when I read because I am a student and educator, so I knew what they were talking about and understood the content pretty well. Because I read a decent amount, I knew a lot of the academic language they used, but some I had to look up online. For example, I didn't know what "epistemological" meant, so I had to look it up. The syntax was the funds of knowledge and discourse model on page 46. This helped show me how literary skills, knowledge, and discursive skills come together to create skilled content literacy practice.

Before We Start Week 8

This activity catered for ESL students had some good and bad aspects. First, it was really good that they used pictures and had them analyze those instead of a paragraph or article. It is much easier for ESL students to analyze visuals in comparison to reading long articles. I also liked how it was the same questions asked throughout each of the slides. I think this is important because it will allow that repetition that will hopefully help the student remember. Additionally, I like how it involves the students by asking them how they feel. It is important to make content personal for reading, which will hopefully lead to more engagement in the classroom. I also liked how the questions were not hard to comprehend. They were very basic, which is important because of the student can't even comprehend the question, they won't be able to get anything out of the activity. However, there is not much comprehension of the photo being encouraged, it is more of just reacting to the photo. If the goal is to teach about poverty through analyzing pictures, this assignment is not great. If that is the goal, it should be asking things like "what is going on in the picture? What features of the photo help you understand what is going on?" I think that ideally, the assignment will include some of both types of questions, not just one or the other. I feel like this is more of a reflection than analyzing photos for comprehension or content. ESL students still need to be able to understand content, and encouraging them to use visuals to come to conclusions is important, but they will most likely not be able to get there on their own. We have to make sure we ask them questions that will help guide their comprehension, not just questions that encourage self reflection.

Before We Start Week 10

This quiz was not very good in my opinion. The answers were very easy to find, and it didn't include any application or analysis skills. I assume the point of this quiz is to make sure that students are fully reading the material, but the questions can easily be answered by just skimming for key words, so I don't feel like that's a good reason. I feel like the quiz was more like busy work than an actual quiz. I also think that there could have been more fun and interactive ways to get that information across besides just reading and taking an easy quiz. She could have done an activity that was collaborative instead of just having them read and answer basic questions. The questions on the quiz all seem to be targeted at lower order thinking skills, and higher order questions are lacking. It is not bad to include lower order questions in your assignments, but I think there has to be a mix of both types of questions. Additionally, I didn't like how not all the questioned targeted essential important questions. For example, one of the questions asked what year something happened. This is not important information that students should have to know, and if they ever need to it would be easy to google and find out. I think it's an issue how much schools force memorization, while we should really be focusing on applying that information to come to conclusions.

Before You Start Week 12
List of controversial questions in social studies:

Should we teach critical race theory? - What does critical race theory really teach? Does critical race theory blame all white people?
Should social studies teachers be able to share their opinions on politics/controversial topics? - Will sharing political opinions upset parents and teachers? Does sharing political opinions discourage children from sharing their opinion?
What should social studies teachers teach about Columbus Day? - Should Columbus Day be called Indigenous People's Day? Why?
Should social studies teachers encourage political debates? - Will students and teachers be able to mature and respectful way with one another? How can we teach students to have respectful debates?
Should social studies teachers mostly be teaching history? - Are other aspects of social science (economics, sociology, geogrpahy etc) important? Should they be taught in our elementary and middle school?
Is social studies the least important of the 4 core subjects? - Is it fair that students are often pulled out of social studies class to work on writing, reading, or math? Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not?

Should we teach critical race theory? - What does critical race theory really teach? Does critical race theory blame all white people?

Should social studies teachers be able to share their opinions on politics/controversial topics? - Will sharing political opinions upset parents and teachers? Does sharing political opinions discourage children from sharing their opinion?

What should social studies teachers teach about Columbus Day? - Should Columbus Day be called Indigenous People's Day? Why?

Should social studies teachers encourage political debates? - Will students and teachers be able to mature and respectful way with one another? How can we teach students to have respectful debates?

Should social studies teachers mostly be teaching history? - Are other aspects of social science (economics, sociology, geogrpahy etc) important? Should they be taught in our elementary and middle school?

Is social studies the least important of the 4 core subjects? - Is it fair that students are often pulled out of social studies class to work on writing, reading, or math? Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not?​

Is social studies the least important of the 4 core subjects? - Is it fair that students are often pulled out of social studies class to work on writing, reading, or math? Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not?