Friday, August 4, 2017

Podcasts for the ESL classroom

The two Podcasts I found to use for students are Culips and English Class 101. Both are excellent resources for ESL students to use when learning the English language. 

With the Culips podcast, students are able to listen to conversations among people speaking English in a normal pace. This is a great tool to use in the classroom for a listening activity. Students could listen to the conversation and then answer questions about it or complete a graphic organizer mapping out what they listened to. The other feature I really liked about this podcast is where they talk about idioms, common slang, and unique vocabulary. This would be another great resource to use in the classroom or as an assignment. Students could listen to the podcast, and then create a visual depiction of the idiom, slang term or phrase, or the vocabulary word they learned about.

English Class 101 is another excellent podcast for students to use. The feature I liked best with this one was the layout of the podcasts. They are culturally appropriate and teach students not only the language, but how it is used in normal, every day speech. One idea that would be great for the classroom with this podcast would be to listen to one of the vocabulary lessons and then create a project that focuses on the words learned. This assignment could be modified to suit any grade level. There is a separate application for this podcast which makes accessing it very easy for students.

Friday, July 14, 2017

Week 6 - 7/14/2017

This week I read an article that I feel like every single teacher in America should read. The entire time I was reading it, I just kept nodding and agreeing with the points the author made as well as feel like she really opened my eyes to what is happening all around us in the world of education whether we are aware or not.

The article was Embracing Bilingualism in the Classroom: What Role Will You Play written by Danielle Suárez.

Danielle begins her article by explaining her background as an ESL student. She fits perfectly into one of my previous posts about students who have are ESL students not qualifying for gifted education due to their language barrier. She was able to not only speak Spanish and English fluently, she was able to translate from one to the other, she tested into the gifted classrooms, and scored in the 99th percentile on state standardized tests. With all of this, she was still pulled from her classroom when she moved schools to an ESL classroom because of her last name. She talks about what it feels like to profiled solely by a last name and how at her new school none of what she was actually capable of mattered.

Another excellent point she brought up was how often phrases and comments regarding being in America and needing to be able to speak English arise. I loved how she mentioned the United States referring to themselves as a "nation of immigrants", meanwhile we are racist to those who do not speak English as well as ourselves or for "crossing the border". This is a huge issue especially among schools.

She also goes through the historical background of ESL students and the bilingual programs that schools have offered and will hopefully integrate again in all districts. These programs do not just benefit the ESL students, but the English speaking students as well. We need to be teachers who are creating comfortable, safe learning environments and encouraging the growth of all students.

She ended her article the same way I will end my post - with the challenge from Danielle.

"I challenge you to check your implicit biases as students learn a new language. Many of these students are simultaneously learning a new culture and education system. They need you to meet them where they are."

Friday, June 30, 2017

Week 5 - 6/30/2017

The article I read this week was titled When ELA Tools Can’t Adapt to Students’ Native Language. It was written yesterday, June 29, 2017, by Jen Curtis.

I was instantly engaged by the title of the article. A lot of the articles I have read and research I have done has focused on the great things going on in education to support and enhance the learning for ESL students. This article focused on a real issue that is taking place across the country, but is not as widely discussed.

Carmina Mendoza is a fifth-grade teacher who teaches a full inclusion classroom, consisting of both native English and Spanish speaking students. Her biggest concern she is seeing with Edtech is the discrepancies among translation. Mendoza is familiar with the struggles her ESL students face daily because she grew up in Spain and has a strong understanding of the differences the two languages have. She expressed the main difference is in the translation piece between the two. If you translate English word-for-word to Spanish, an entirely new meaning could come out of the sentence. This is because there is such a deviation among the Spanish language alone.

There are some popular Edtech companies listening to the struggles that are being voiced and working to better their software and programs. Achieve3000 is an ELA tool used to help readers using Lexile leveled reading passages. The company has now created an entire suite for the Spanish language. The Lexile levels are appropriate to the content and include directions in Spanish.

On the contrary, another popular program, IXL Learning, is not providing additional translation support for their reading materials. One of their learning specialists, Eryn Barker, explains that students should be working to improve their English reading skills, especially since most of the Spanish speaking students come in with low literacy skills in Spanish as well. She believes students should be given reading passages at their current English reading level to improve on those skills. If they are reading at a kindergarten level, then they should be provided with a kindergarten level reading passage.


I feel that both sides have very valid points. This article brought to light the issues taking place in the Edtech world regarding the support being provided to our ESL students. As teachers, we need to be mindful to the programs we’re using and if they are actually benefitting our students, especially the ESL students.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Week 4 - 6/23/2017

The article I read this week was Too Few ELL Students Land in Gifted Classes written by Sarah D. Sparks and Alex Harwinwas. It was about the gifted education program and the lack of ELL students that are involved in these programs nationwide.

The article focuses on the work of Linnea Van Eman. She is a teacher in Oklahoma who has been trying to provide different testing for ESL students to be able to be truly tested for their gifted abilities. Their district is trying to close the gaps that are visible among the gifted and the regular education population.

One quote that really got me hooked on this article was right in the beginning spoken by the educator herself. "Any child who can translate for their parents and is decoding in two languages all the time, that's huge," Van Eman said. "We need to push back against this perception that giftedness has to look a certain way."

Oklahoma is one of the most advanced states in the country with their gifted education program. About 14 percent of their K-12 students are enrolled and participate in these programs across the state. Although this percentage is high, Oklahoma is still very behind as far as identifying and providing services to students from diverse backgrounds. ESL students have the highest percentage across the country that are overlooked.

The article also brought up a great point, "In math and science, they catch on to the concepts really fast," she said. "I might explain something four or six times for a regular kid. For gifted, I explain once, and they get it." This right here is what educators should be looking at when providing gifted education programming. Students might not have the best language or spoken English, but in math or science they could excel. Gifted programming should be offered in all subjects based on the needs of the students in each of these areas.


This article really opened my eyes to what being labeled as “gifted” really means. As an educator it is important that we look at the whole child and not just one component, such as their language development.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Week 3 - 6/16/2017

The article I read this week was incredible and spoke to concerns I have daily in teaching. The article was titled, “Classroom Gaming Should Be Engaging, Tied to Curriculum—and Not Require Teachers to Code”.


There are so many teachers who have technology in their classrooms and are missing out on incredible benefits from it. I do not completely blame them for this though. There are opportunities for professional development to take place on such topics, and there just is not enough time for technology when it comes to some school’s agendas. Some school’s might not have the staff to provide the professional development, as well. On the other end of that, I have sat through fantastic professional development sessions that have the potential to encourage and educate teachers on more effective and useful ways to incorporate the technology and only a portion of the staff are actually engaged.

What Not To Do:

-Do not choose games that are only loosely connected to the curriculum. These may not provide any instruction and end up being more work for the teacher.

-Choose games that can be implemented to support instruction taking place.

-Make sure the educational games being used are not focused more on the design and graphics. This is not the priority of educational games! Games should be visually appealing, but more importantly educational and beneficial.

Making Games Relevant and Accessible:

-The games chosen need to have a natural fit into the lesson or class period. Games shouldn’t need weeks of play time to accomplish a goal, complete a level, or master a skill. Realistically, that is not how it works in the classroom.


For a month, 900 middle school science games were launched to measure the engagement, efficiency, and benefits of them. The teachers noticed a remarkable difference in the students engagement level as well as success in the material being taught.

This is a table directly from the article. The staff voted and these are the five top picks for science games among the teachers. All of the listed games are free!

Game
Learning Objective
Activity
EcoKingdoms: Growth of Populations
Life Sciences: Factors Influencing Growth of Individuals and Populations
As a park manager you will make choices that impact the number of visitors in the park, the plants, animals and park funds.
Evoluti.io
Life Sciences: Reconstructing Evolutionary History Using Fossils
Game players explore evolution firsthand.
Lightventure
Physical Sciences: Wave Model of Light
Features campers who change light beams from emitters to receivers.
Walter’s Travels
Earth and Space Sciences: Eclipses and Seasons
Takes you through a quest to gain knowledge about the solar system and eclipses. A longtime favorite of the Legends staff.
What’s Your Reaction
Physical Sciences: Newton’s Third Law
Players meet the historic scientist Isaac Newton and help him get to a party. 





Moral of the story: If you use gaming in your classroom, which I highly recommend, make sure it fits in your class period, directly aligns to your standards and objectives, and focuses on the student’s success not the design or graphics.