Synthesis of SCED 4200

This course has proved to be a very valuable experience for me. I have learned many new ways to instruct students and to focus on helping them grasp oral and written language in a variety of representations. Incorporating a variety of instruction in my discipline will be very important in providing students with a variety of learning activities in order to fit the learning preferences of each student.
For comprehension strategies, I plan to use many before, during, and after writing activities. These activities will allow students to access background knowledge of the text and subject and will allow them to utilize their inference and prediction skills of what might happen in the text. Before-reading activities will help students be on the same page and at the same level of understanding. During-reading activities will help students process what they are learning as they annotate the text and continue to make inferences. This will help them develop a deeper understanding of the text instead of reading the words but not comprehending the meaning of the text. After-reading activities will help students tie the information all together and confirm their understanding of what they have read. The different activities we were taught and observed in this class helped me understand the different ways in which these strategies can be taught. The Before/During/After Reading charts (or B/D/A Charts) seem to be an effective tool in teaching comprehension strategies and allow both the student and the instructor understand how the student increased in their knowledge of the issue as they experienced the text.
I also plan on having my classroom being a class in which students have plenty of opportunities to develop their oral language skills. Activities such as a mock debate or fishbowl activity seem to be very useful, effective, and fun strategies of teaching students to utilize their oral language skills. Speaking is own of the skills that is most valued in the workforce. Practicing those public speaking skills will not only help students in the educational environment but also in everyday life. They will have more confidence in speaking and expressing their ideas and opinions. In one of my social studies teaching methods courses we were able to experience a mock trial and understand how involved students might get if given the opportunity to participate in an activity similar to this. This was a worthwhile experience in that it taught me the difference between sitting in a desk for 90 minutes and being spoken taught as opposed to being part of the attention and participating in sharing one's own opinion and collaborating with others. I want my students to be able to experience that as well.
One of the big issues I most likely will face in teaching is instructing culturally, linguistically, and academically diverse students. I plan on teaching in a big city which implies teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. I plan on scaffolding the learning of these students and providing additional feedback and support for these students in order to help them be successful as they leave high school and enter the workforce. The most important thing to help these students with is teaching them the language and teaching them how to act and adapt to American culture. However, I want to be careful in not stripping these students of their cultural identity and force them to forget where they come from and the way they were raised. I plan on allowing these students additional time to finish assignments so they can be done properly. If students struggle to understand specific instruction or directions then I will attempt to communicate with them in their native language (provided they are Spanish speakers). For students of other linguistic backgrounds I will attempt to communicate with them or find a student who speaks that language as well as English in order to help the struggling student.
I want to have an extensive library available for students in any classroom I am in. I want to have novels, graphic novels, fiction, non-fiction, mystery, suspense, popular young adult fiction, and appropriate magazines in the class. I want to provide texts with varying cultures, languages, protagonists, and settings. It is important to have texts which portray countries and cultures in a positive light. It is also important to provide texts with protagonists who are of varying ages, cultures, religions, and genders. The larger the variety of the text selection the better.
Overall, this course has taught me the importance of providing a variety of activities and instruction for students. Students thrive on a variation of instruction and this will allow them to adapt to new requirements and expectations.

Classroom Observations- Skyview High

This semester for my clinical experience I was assigned to work in the Psych 1010 course. As part of our required assignments for the clinical experience we were also supposed to observe an ESL course. I decided to spend an hour a day for four days in this class since it took place during 1st hour and my cooperating teacher had his prep during that time period. In this class there were 6 students, five of which were at the intermediate level of English and one who had only been in the US for 4 months. The teacher had no aides in her class, so she decided to have the Peruvian student work individually on book work while she spent the majority of her time working with the intermediate level students. Observing this approach to teaching ESL students helped me realize the importance of having aides in classrooms such as this so as to allow beginner students a chance to practice their oral language skills. The teacher decided to focus on the students she could work with as a group and who would have to take the national standardized tests. 

The intermediate students received group instruction on grammar and listening skills. The ESL teacher taught these skills very well and very thoroughly. She guided the students through their exercises and managed behavior issues well. 

I worked one-on-one with the Peruvian student whenever I was able to help in the ESL class. I helped him with his book work and with his vocabulary instruction. He explained to me that he was focusing most of his time on learning vocabulary. He was given a set of words to work with each week which were words common to each other. He was to learn between 12 and 15 words each week, which may have been overloading him somewhat. He was given flashcards of the words and allowed time during the week to review the words. The ESL teacher would draw pictures and give examples of how the words would be used in a sentence but he expressed the desire to have more examples from the teacher of how each word could be used. 

This ESL class was functioning reasonably well considering the resources given them and the time allowed for instruction. There could be improvements made to the amount of time which the students are allowed to receive ESL instruction. But the instruction was delivered well and the students were getting a grasp on the language through oral and vocabulary skills.