Back to Work
14 years ago
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Defense Coming Up! February 26, 2010
I have written my project for my master's degree in applied linguistics. It is called, "Teachers Guide to Creating And Implementing Kindergarten Culturally Relevant Learning Centers." I think it will be a great resource for K teachers looking for ideas on how to teach young readers to enjoy literacy in my Yukon/Kuskokwim region. I am defending my project in Bethel, Alaska and I am really excited to finish the journey that the program has taken me through.
I have a lot of people to thank; my mom, family, my colleagues, professors, and people who are my dear friends who endured hearing me moan and groan about the process. Thanks for hanging in there! I appreciate it. Quyana!
I have a lot of people to thank; my mom, family, my colleagues, professors, and people who are my dear friends who endured hearing me moan and groan about the process. Thanks for hanging in there! I appreciate it. Quyana!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Project
Hello All Readers,
I am writing to tell you about my new project. I am working on including culturally relevant story books to our reading curriculum through centers. Sounds like an exciting idea? Well, I think so too! It is going to be a lot of work, but I am ready to do my best to see if I can develop units for K teachers to use as a guideline.
Enjoy spring!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
LING 612 Standardized Assessment of the Content Knowledge of English Language Learners K-12: current trends and old dilemmas
Standardized assessment of the content knowledge of English language learners K-12: current trends and old dilemmas by Butler, F.A., & Stevens, R.(2001).
Overview and problem:
Students placed in English as a second language, Limited English Proficient (LEP) in the USA is approximately at 80% based on the teacher-designed and national assessment programs such as the National Assessment of Education Progress.
Reading challenges vs. content knowledge
Approaches to standardized assessment of content knowledge:
Excluding the LEP students from national assessments was the solution in the past. However, this made that population have no representation.
Approaches to include students in testing programs:
Testing in the first language
• Test content translated into first language.
• Translating test into first language.
Accommodations
• See table 1 on pg. 413.
• Modifications of the test
• Modifications of the test procedure
Measuring growth in English
• Some states providing a separate measure of growth in English.
• Some states use growth in English as alternative accountability measures.
• Taking the language test will help LEP students to take the standardized tests.
Discussion
• Developing testing in the first language addresses many languages.
• Difficult to translate tests to first languages.
• Measuring and reporting growth in English and content areas is difficult.
Rethinking research
• Pg. 417 1. When is it appropriate to give standardized content assessments to ELLs? This is, when are the inferences made about the performance of ELLs on standardized content assessments valid?
• Pg. 417 2. Until it is appropriate to give these assessments to ELLs, how do we provide accountability and assure equity?
Areas of discussion for us to discuss:
• Academic language assessment pg. 418
• Opportunities to learn pg. 420
• Focused research on promising approaches to inclusion pg. 421
Conclusion:
• Experts from applied linguistics, language testers, psychometricians, classroom teachers, district, state, and federal officials and other fields of education get together to collaborate. Language testers contribute sound test development principles and evaluate language tests. Translate systematically operational academic language into academic language and guidelines for teachers.
Overview and problem:
Students placed in English as a second language, Limited English Proficient (LEP) in the USA is approximately at 80% based on the teacher-designed and national assessment programs such as the National Assessment of Education Progress.
Reading challenges vs. content knowledge
Approaches to standardized assessment of content knowledge:
Excluding the LEP students from national assessments was the solution in the past. However, this made that population have no representation.
Approaches to include students in testing programs:
Testing in the first language
• Test content translated into first language.
• Translating test into first language.
Accommodations
• See table 1 on pg. 413.
• Modifications of the test
• Modifications of the test procedure
Measuring growth in English
• Some states providing a separate measure of growth in English.
• Some states use growth in English as alternative accountability measures.
• Taking the language test will help LEP students to take the standardized tests.
Discussion
• Developing testing in the first language addresses many languages.
• Difficult to translate tests to first languages.
• Measuring and reporting growth in English and content areas is difficult.
Rethinking research
• Pg. 417 1. When is it appropriate to give standardized content assessments to ELLs? This is, when are the inferences made about the performance of ELLs on standardized content assessments valid?
• Pg. 417 2. Until it is appropriate to give these assessments to ELLs, how do we provide accountability and assure equity?
Areas of discussion for us to discuss:
• Academic language assessment pg. 418
• Opportunities to learn pg. 420
• Focused research on promising approaches to inclusion pg. 421
Conclusion:
• Experts from applied linguistics, language testers, psychometricians, classroom teachers, district, state, and federal officials and other fields of education get together to collaborate. Language testers contribute sound test development principles and evaluate language tests. Translate systematically operational academic language into academic language and guidelines for teachers.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
LING 612 Ch 6 Writing Assessment(1996) by O'Malley & Pierce
Writing assessment focus is mainly on the role of the writer, purpose of writing, and writing modifications. Self and peer assessment are key roles in that process. Students can write for their purposes and get feedback on the process.
When my students are first beginning to write, they write exactly like they would if they are recording their transcriptions of stories. Students voice can be heard in the style that their voice comes across. After the transition from pictures to words with pictures, I can see my student's writing developed in their sentences. Some are personal stories, some are about an activity that they participated in such as a boat ride to fish camp or hunting. The stories are dictated and very long. Kids have no problem telling the stories for someone else to record. Once they are in charge of their own words on the paper, they begin to see writing as a difficult process. I am hoping to find ways to help ease that transition for my students to become confident writers.
I hope to implement the process where students go through the process writing beginning on pg. 138 where they do prewriting, writing, postwriting, and conferencing. This can be a discussion about the topic and what they will choose to write about.
Scoring rubrics come in handy at this point, such as Figure 6.1 Holistic Scoring Rubric for Writing Assessment with ELL Students that can show you where your students are at in a glance. My K-1 students will generally be in levels 1 and 2, but it is also a great idea to show them where they will eventually end up as they learn the writing process. This is a great idea for motivation purposes and gets students hooked on writing.
Writing assessments are a great instruction guide. I would love to have a rubric posted and have my students understand the writing process to self-assess and help their peers with the writing process. The more students are exposed to the writing process, the better writers they become. I enjoy hearing my students tell each other about their journals. I am also interested in writing in other content areas and connecting them to our daily lessons in reading,writing, math, and employability skills.
When my students are first beginning to write, they write exactly like they would if they are recording their transcriptions of stories. Students voice can be heard in the style that their voice comes across. After the transition from pictures to words with pictures, I can see my student's writing developed in their sentences. Some are personal stories, some are about an activity that they participated in such as a boat ride to fish camp or hunting. The stories are dictated and very long. Kids have no problem telling the stories for someone else to record. Once they are in charge of their own words on the paper, they begin to see writing as a difficult process. I am hoping to find ways to help ease that transition for my students to become confident writers.
I hope to implement the process where students go through the process writing beginning on pg. 138 where they do prewriting, writing, postwriting, and conferencing. This can be a discussion about the topic and what they will choose to write about.
Scoring rubrics come in handy at this point, such as Figure 6.1 Holistic Scoring Rubric for Writing Assessment with ELL Students that can show you where your students are at in a glance. My K-1 students will generally be in levels 1 and 2, but it is also a great idea to show them where they will eventually end up as they learn the writing process. This is a great idea for motivation purposes and gets students hooked on writing.
Writing assessments are a great instruction guide. I would love to have a rubric posted and have my students understand the writing process to self-assess and help their peers with the writing process. The more students are exposed to the writing process, the better writers they become. I enjoy hearing my students tell each other about their journals. I am also interested in writing in other content areas and connecting them to our daily lessons in reading,writing, math, and employability skills.
Monday, November 24, 2008
LING 612 Ch 10 Reading Assessment and Instruction by Peregoy, S. & Boyle, O. (2005)
This chapter does a wonderful job of explaining that if assessment is multidimensional, then you and your students have a better opportunity to show progress in more ways. I liked the Figure 10.1 that has a instructional cycle that has these components, assess, instruct based on assessment, re-evaluate, instruct. This cycle is repeated until students are ready to move on to another level.
For non-native English speakers, it is recommended that you find out information about student's prior knowledge, purpose for reading, language knowledge and their prior literacy experiences both in their first language as well as in English. You also have to look at the student's background knowledge which is finding out if they use their background knowledge when they read, language knowledge which is their miscue analysis, word recognition and if they understand the words they are reading, vocabulary in speaking, reading and writing, and comprehension which includes the different levels such as independent, instructional, and frustration from the text that they are reading.
From the informal reading inventories, I find myself using echo reading where you or a tape reads and children echo back the same phrases or sentences. I also use guided reading when I have both my kindergarten and first grade students for my guided reading group. The level of difficulty depends on the students and what lessons I want to emphasize.
I also am a big fan of read alouds and introducing silent sustained reading to my first grade group. They enjoy reading texts and we read books that are at all levels, but mostly focusing on the frustration levels, just to work together through the passages.
For non-native English speakers, it is recommended that you find out information about student's prior knowledge, purpose for reading, language knowledge and their prior literacy experiences both in their first language as well as in English. You also have to look at the student's background knowledge which is finding out if they use their background knowledge when they read, language knowledge which is their miscue analysis, word recognition and if they understand the words they are reading, vocabulary in speaking, reading and writing, and comprehension which includes the different levels such as independent, instructional, and frustration from the text that they are reading.
From the informal reading inventories, I find myself using echo reading where you or a tape reads and children echo back the same phrases or sentences. I also use guided reading when I have both my kindergarten and first grade students for my guided reading group. The level of difficulty depends on the students and what lessons I want to emphasize.
I also am a big fan of read alouds and introducing silent sustained reading to my first grade group. They enjoy reading texts and we read books that are at all levels, but mostly focusing on the frustration levels, just to work together through the passages.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
LING 612 Reading Assessment Ch 5 by O'Malley & Pierce (1996)
I am pleased to say that I am starting to figure out how to assess and use reading activities as assessment tools to show progress. If I want to test students on retell, I provide retell activities for the students to utilize and they also get lessons on how to practice that skill. Everyday reading experiences should include a variety of methods to help students learn to decode and comprehend their reading assignments. Books should be provided for students to explore their interests and anyone can be included in the process of reading, whether it be a parent, teacher, peer, family member, elder or a toy such a toy or snow machine. Kids have great imaginations to create different settings for them to enjoy literature.
Assessment is a tool to help students, parents and teachers learn about the process that students are going through to learn to read. Students that are English language learners are going to have trouble connecting to the mainstream America's genre of reading, but that does not mean that they will not be able to catch up. It takes second language learners an average of 5-7 years to become proficient in a language. During that time, they can read books that they select and ones that they show interest in.
Teacher's roles as data collectors should provide a variety of assessment tools. The chapter has a lot of reading assessment ideas that you can use or adapt for your particular setting. I am going to try to get more familiar with figure 5.20 on pg 126 to get quality information of what is happening with individual student reading strategies and record that in a portfolio that I will use to share with the student, other teachers and parents.
I had a hard time keeping a portfolio in the past because I just saw it as a collection of work that had no meaning to my students but the idea was my own and only I understood it without providing rubics, checklists or other types of documents that helped others who look at the portfolio understand it. I am pleasantly surprised at my alternative approach to the concept of portfolio in the classroom as a teaching and recording tool for both my students and myself.
Assessment is a tool to help students, parents and teachers learn about the process that students are going through to learn to read. Students that are English language learners are going to have trouble connecting to the mainstream America's genre of reading, but that does not mean that they will not be able to catch up. It takes second language learners an average of 5-7 years to become proficient in a language. During that time, they can read books that they select and ones that they show interest in.
Teacher's roles as data collectors should provide a variety of assessment tools. The chapter has a lot of reading assessment ideas that you can use or adapt for your particular setting. I am going to try to get more familiar with figure 5.20 on pg 126 to get quality information of what is happening with individual student reading strategies and record that in a portfolio that I will use to share with the student, other teachers and parents.
I had a hard time keeping a portfolio in the past because I just saw it as a collection of work that had no meaning to my students but the idea was my own and only I understood it without providing rubics, checklists or other types of documents that helped others who look at the portfolio understand it. I am pleasantly surprised at my alternative approach to the concept of portfolio in the classroom as a teaching and recording tool for both my students and myself.
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