Tuesday, December 15, 2015
This is WHY I choose USFCA Education, Education!
Holiday Message From the President
Students,
This holiday season, our celebrations can be tempered by the steady news of the suffering, evil, and injustice around the world. The rash of mass killings in the Holy Land, across Africa, in Paris, and close to us in San Bernardino, diminishes our joy and increases our unease. We are likewise troubled by the images and reality of migrant families fleeing war, risking their lives, desperately seeking somewhere, anywhere, they can find food, shelter, and safety, to which they have a fundamental human right. And also close to home, we are confronted by images of deadly violence involving police officers and young black men. Rather than these crises bringing us together as a nation, as happened after 9/11, we see divisions deepening, rhetoric laced with anger and bigotry, and increased levels of fear.
The feasts of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa allow us time to step back from these temptations to anger and fear and to dwell instead, both as individuals and as a learning community, on that which unites us: the Jesuit values at the core of our mission to educate hearts and minds to fashion a more just, humane, and sustainable world — the world for which we long. These are the values we strive to foster in our students, so they can make a difference in uniting our communities for generations to come.
Here are three of USF's core values I commend to you for reflection:
I invite you to reflect on your Jesuit education and, with it, the values we believe can change our world, more in need now than ever. And I thank you for your contributions, both small and large, to peace on earth.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J.
The feasts of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa allow us time to step back from these temptations to anger and fear and to dwell instead, both as individuals and as a learning community, on that which unites us: the Jesuit values at the core of our mission to educate hearts and minds to fashion a more just, humane, and sustainable world — the world for which we long. These are the values we strive to foster in our students, so they can make a difference in uniting our communities for generations to come.
Here are three of USF's core values I commend to you for reflection:
- We respect and promote the dignity of every person regardless of age, national origin, race, sexual orientation, gender expression, or socio-economic status.
- We see learning as a humanizing activity that transcends the interests of particular individuals or groups and seeks instead the common good, with a particular attention to those persons and communities most in need of our help and protection.
- We see diversity of perspectives and traditions as essential to a quality education in a global context. We seek unity in our diversity for the sake of inclusive excellence.
I invite you to reflect on your Jesuit education and, with it, the values we believe can change our world, more in need now than ever. And I thank you for your contributions, both small and large, to peace on earth.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Discussion on Assessment Strategies
As TESOL instructors we can use native language and culture to connect and transfer, native language to English language ideas, concepts, and discussions. Shannon (1999) discusses the importance of building on writing skills that exercise language rights and privileges that incorporate heritage language while working on language acquisition.
Responsive and extensive writing assessments described in Dr. Washington’s, Module 6 PowerPoint, are very helpful in describing the prompting tools provided by teachers that guide ESL students to finding the correct concepts for writing exercises. Following Brown, Washington, Shannon, and your own experiences can lead you to an ethical assessment standard that incorporates adequate amounts of heritage culture and language knowledge.
“A test administrator poses a series of questions that essentially serve as an outline as the emergent format written text (Brown, 2004).
Focus on assessment guidelines that incorporate heritage culture is a priority for many TESOL instructors. This is because we, as teachers, do not want to oppress student culture, but rather use English language to help student express opinions, idea, and traditions of their native culture to English speakers. I this incorporation of heritage culture is very important to student expression, which is usually conveyed through their writing practices. Important note; we want to avoid penalizing students for grammatical errors while trying to express abstract ideas through language that is not learned yet. To set our students up for success, we can use the responsive and expressive wring models to lead student to correct language and grammar expectations. We can roll model this through writing examples, key vocabulary, and lesson build.
For example, comparing and contrasting student holidays, and how they are celebrated in their Native country/culture. Lets say we write about Thanksgiving. Teachers can build a lesson that uses English vocabulary and visuals to describe food that is recognizable to student’s native traditions. Then, teacher can share writing examples from the similar English level students. Teachers can explain rubrics which share where points are gained and lost in writing. The rubric should ONLY setup expectations that have been reviewed, practices, and discussed in class. Writing prompts such as Thanksgiving traditions, helps preserve heritage and build connection between two different cultures that can be used in many different areas, social settings, writing, and speaking events inside and out of the classroom. Students can share this information with their family, which helps them connect their native culture to their non-native culture.
This lesson build helps student s generalize, and focus in on the content and then provide their own ideas around a topic. The students I work with are diagnosed with Autism, ASD. We AWLAYS do baseline assessment before creating an individualized education program, IEP goals for the year. Side note; most ESL students in public schools have IEPs. We use the John Woodcock assessment for reading comprehension and writing baseline. Baseline means there is no teacher guidance, except instruction. Once we have our writing baseline from standardized testing, we then add in other responsive, and extensive writing assessment that we as teachers have observed, which basically means we decide if content is relative and transferable to learner life for comprehension. One strategy I want to share is positive impact of picture visual, response on language acquisition. We show a picture of student and ask who, what, when, where questions. You guys should check out the app Pictello, some students use this app to transfer pictures, and then write into a story, with voiceover reading, that is saved on their Ipad devices that can be reviewed later.
References:
Brown, H. D., & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. Pearson Education. White Plains, NY.
Shannon, S. M. (1999). Language Rights or Language Privileges? TESOL Journal, 8(3), 23-28.
Washington, B. (2015). Module 6: Testing communication skills, Part II: Writing and evaluation [PowerPoint Document]. Retrieved from http://oed.usfca.edu/soe/matesol/ime634/m6/index.html
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Voices from Discriminated, Disabled, and how to Listen
“Voices from the
Past” from ABC News’ Nightline (1999)
Detail your
personal review and reflection, and not the expectation from your professor
that you can recount your experience through the lens of a
psycholinguist. Remember: There is a possibility that a population
of your learners may have/continue to experience post-traumatic stress,
internment, displacement, and/or alienation before entering your
classroom. It is important that you have a space to reflect upon this in
your class assignments, and consider what steps you may take in engaging
students with an array of talents and challenges.
At first, I
really pondered the relevance of this assignment to ESL testing and assessment,
however, with more research came the concept from this assignment of listening
interpretation exercise really hit home.
Considering my
job-teaching students with Autism, ASD, the topic of an individual learner
experience, past and present, outside of the classroom has always intrigued me.
As a teacher, I always think about what has happened in a student’s life before
I met them, what is currently happening, and what will happen when they arrive
home?
I do not think we
will ever really know every situation a student has gone through that affects
their learning process that would be too overwhelming. The thought of post-traumatic
stress, internment, displacement, and/or alienation before entering a classroom
and the effects these situations have on a student’s behavior can directly
affect student-learning abilities.
So, when I listened
to the audio recordings, and since this assignment is a reflection on how to
engage students with an array of talents and challenges, I felt I could best
apply my experience working at the Joshua School, with students 16-18 diagnosed
with ASD. The demographic of students I work with are on what many would call
the “lower functioning end of the Autism spectrum.” I wanted to use two
students as examples, to answer the question presented: How to gage learner
background experiences, and engage learner in their talents with challenges?
So here we go:
Student A, is
mostly non-verbal, not because he cannot speak, but because he depends so much
on verbal or written scripts from people he communicates with. For example,
helping this student express his likes and dislikes. Once I watched him drink
black coffee, in which his distressed facial expression indicated this student
does not like the black coffee, but when we asked him if he likes black coffee he
replied “yes,” with deepened, I don’t like this intonation. Our hypothesis for
the disconnect in his real feelings on whether he likes something or not,
versus his verbal answer, is that he learned to respond to how his parent or
teacher or peer is responding, or with a response that is favorable to teacher,
parent, or peer. We realize he has an acute ability to pick up non-verbal
prompts that are reflected by the response of the person in the conversation, or
asking him the question.
What does this
mean for his engagement in talents and activities, with his level of language?
Well, first my team thinks about what is most beneficial for student? He
doesn’t have to socialize. Except, we want him to be able to independently
express his wants and needs, likes, and dislikes. We want him t be able to
express, “I do not like coffee.” So for him to engage with people with his
level of language acquisition we found reading and typing is the best way to
receive a response that is not persuaded by nonverbal language of another
person, and that picking up on nonverbal queues is a strength in language
development that we can apply in appropriate social settings. Writing questions and giving choices is also,
very helpful to student A. For social situations, were student is expected to
converse, we help him by writing out scripts. We use different fronts to
queues, when to ask a question, and when to response to a question. This helps
student become independent in social situations, like at a dinner with friend,
or talking to a peer.
Student B, is
Hispanic, and has a twin brother, also diagnosed with ASD. He is very verbal,
however his grammar and clarity is hard to understand, especially for those who
are just meeting him. He speaks very fast and sometimes incoherently. The
unusual part is that he does not even speak to his twin brother in verbal
language, but through sounds and noises. We know they’re communicating because
they organize themselves to meet at a certain area, or change body positions,
or just through synchronized laughter. Student B, is not interested in social
conversations. However, he knows the correct response because of scripts he has
practice over the years. If he does not want to be spoken too, he says, “can
you please stop talking to me,” which he says often.
The challenge
here, to benefit his future, is helping him become independent at a job. His
conversation with supervisors, who are not trained with his behavior program,
or Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) knowledge, is one of the biggest obstacles. Questions
on how can we help this student B be successful working with an array of people
who do not know his disabilities, quarks, or environmental needs? Because it would be impossible educate every
person we meet, to be ABA professional, we help student B cope, and work
through day-to-day challenges in community settings.
The team I work
with is, also, assisting in him building the language that will more
appropriately help him acquire his needs, in language that is easy for people
to understand. Student B is most definitely talented, he is great with detail,
he learns mechanics so quickly, and he is great with routine. These are his
strengths.
Student B is
from a low-income, underserved, immigrant community, located in north Denver.
To me, he exemplifies student adversity. He has cognitive learning disabilities,
and because of his home life and his school life he has learn two different
behaviors and functional language. At school, calm voice, work to get rewards.
At home, loud vocals, erratic behavior to get attention, to get what he wants. Sidenote, he doesn’t understand that concept
that either behavior is wrong or right.
I bring these
two students up because I can relate their stories to the question Module 5
asks about engaging students with language challenges. I cannot as easily relate the stories of
learners with post-traumatic stress, interment, and alienation. However, the
stories of the “Voices from the Days of Slavery,” specifically, Susan A.
Quall’s voice recording from 1932 is relatable to hearing expressive language
to describe an experience from someone with “broken” English.
I had to read
the text because the audio was so old and crackly, but when listening to audio,
I could hear the change in prosody in her voice as she answered questions and
spoke of challenging situations, the ones that “bother [her] everynight.” I,
specifically, chose this audio recording because I used to live on John Island,
SC, so I know the rich Gullah culture that reside in that areas of the country.
However, upon reading the transcription of the audio, I put together a
despairing story of abuse, sexism, racism, and rape.
So, I imagine,
today, if I had a group of refugee students from Syria, with traumatic
experiences, like witnessing death, violence, and whatever horrible things that
are occurring in the area of the World they are from, I would of course approach
their lesson planning in a way that acknowledges their past experiences, and
help them learn expressive language techniques. For this, there are some
methods would include, visuals, social stories, and roll modeling
feelings.
At the school I
currently work at, The Joshua School, understanding emotions is a huge part of
helping students reach cognitive learning goals. If a student can put language
with their emotional state, then they can express themselves better. By
expressing themselves to others better, more compassion and understanding can
occur.
Much like
hearing Susan A. Qualls voice (1932, May 16), we as listeners become more aware
of the situation she experienced, although the audio is crackled and hard to
hear, listeners can hear the sadness in her voice when she speaks of, “How you
have to make him do it. You have to talk [sweet (?)] to him,” You can hear
despair in her voice as she describes the “man who worry me every night,”
Quall, Voices from the Days of Slavery.
I think the most
important aspect to take away from this assignment, is listening to the student
speak, and encouraging them to speak, read and write, no matter their level of
language about feelings and experiences. Most of my students cannot describe
their home life, or even what they like and dislike, but we still encourage
them in as many different approaches as we can, until one day something’s
works, or a concept “clicks,” or just becomes a memorized script.
Teachers may
never know what a student has truly experienced in their life, trauma, tragedy,
abuse, especially if they do not have the language to describe it, but as long
as there is genuine listening, compassion, and tolerance for learners, we will
learn the best ways to teach them the language they need to survive, and maybe
one day describe their individual experiences, like Susan A. Quall voice has
done.
Citation:
Voices from the
Days of Slavery. (1932, May 16). Retrieved November 21, 2015, from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/index.html
“Voices from the Past” from ABC News’ Nightline (1999) https://usfca.instructure.com/courses/1555445/assignments/6520181#submit
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Interview/ Insight into English Language Proficiency Test Prep
- What specific exams were you preparing for? IELTS and GRE
- Why was this exam of importance to your career, education, or life in the states? They were important for my doctoral study . they were the US universities' requirement for admission.
- What is the purpose of the exam? ILETS purpose was assessing the test takers English proficiency. GRE purpose, I think it was to evaluate test takers intellectual and critical thinking.
- What were the steps you have taken to study and prepare? For IELTS, I took some class just for being familiar with exam questions and strategies for answer the questions. For English knowledge part, I had a self study. For speaking, I practiced my speaking with my American friends via Skype.
- What were some other exams that have tested your English proficiency? TOEFL IBT
- What were your concerns on English exams? Time were too limited for answering all types of questions. I strongly believe that these commercial exams increase test takers anxiety by putting pressure on test takers because it is beneficial for the test administration if test takers resit the exam for many times.
- How you do feel about your language learning, do you feel I.e. confident, nervous? Before coming to the US, I thought my English was great, but when I arrived here, I lost my self confidence as I could not understand Americans very well especially if they talked very fast. I think I should keep working on my English in order to understand what people say. I understand them around 90%.
- Any other thoughts on your experience in English proficiency exams? I believe that these exams are not fair for two reasons: First, they cannot assess language learners competence, they just judge your performance in a very limited time. Time pressure is very challenging as well as exams duration that make test takers exhausted. Secondly, some people are skillful to answer multiple choices. They may not be fluent in English but they are good at finding the right answers. All in all, I did not find these exams very fair and academic.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
English Proficiency Exam Prospective
You
will document a dialogue with a student who is required to prepare or has taken
a mandatory English language examination. In completing the assignment, you
will:
• Under the guidance of the
professor, identify a participant for the assignment
• Ask several guiding
questions related to the interest, purpose, and experience of a student who
speaks English as an additional language in taking an English language
proficiency examination
Write
a 2 - 3 paragraph reflection on the experience of listening to the student’s
narratives
Under the guidance of professor Brad
Washington, I connected with Doctoral student, Malihe
Eshghavi, who attends the University of San Francisco. Eshghavi has, in the
past, prepared the following English proficiency tests, which are as follows;
the Test of English as a Foreign Language, TOEFL, International English Testing
System, IELTS, and the Graduate Record Examination, GRE. Eshghavi is an Iranian
student in the field of second language acquisition. These English proficiency
exams were taken in her native country, Iran. The exams were required for her
admissions into USFCA Doctoral program.
Although my
conversation with Malihe was short, it was enough to give me an idea of the
complexities of English proficiency exam preparation. Speaking with her
reminded me of my friend Lara Ismael’s English preparation for her move to
America in 2011, to be an au pair. Although, Lara did not need to take English
exams to take her job in America, she still took basic English classes to learn
fundamental English language to help her with her job. In the TESOL field, we
know this type of language acquisition for a job as English for specific
purpose. Eshghavi, however, began pursuing English for academic purposes.
Similarly,
both non-native English speakers encountered the same conflict, which was
learning English in their native country, in order to fulfill functional
communication purposes for their personal endeavors. Lara, prepared for a job.
Malihe, prepared for higher education.
Knowing
this, I can only imagine the anticipation of language acquisition when they are
not yet in an English speaking country, let alone, the anxiety of standardized
testing. To compare, in my education experience and travels, I found language
immersion was the best way to study and learn a language, and testing is
nerve-racking. Malihe’s Doctoral program aspiration depended on her testing
abilities, and English proficiency. She had to take English proficiency courses
to pass the GRE exam, which even native English speakers study rigorously for, to
get into graduate programs.
Having a
non-native prospective on testing preparation brings great awareness to the obstacles
international students face when applying to English speaking schools. This
insight helps me, as a TESOL instructor, to know where I can help alleviate
stress for students preparing for English exams. Knowing Krashen’s Affective
Filter Theory, my own experiences, my friends experiences, and Malihe’s story,
English proficiency tests should not determine future admissions, but decide
the proper placement for immigrant student English education needs. Malihe,
says, currently she is not preparing for any English proficiency exams, which
to me means, she has adapted to English standardize testing, and is at a point
in her educational career where she is way more proficient in speaking and
writing in English.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
ANALYSIS: The Accreditation of English Language Training Act
10/23/2015
MOD1 ASSIGNMENT
You
will critically examine and propose a 500-word (1 page) amendment to the 2010
Accreditation of English Language Training Programs Act
(http://www.ice.gov/sevis/accreditation-act/) enacted by the government of the
United States of America, and enforced by the United States Department of
Homeland Security. Through examination, you will address: a) the impact
of the act on prospective students’ access to education, b) the act’s
implications on the field of education in general, and TESOL instructors in the
United States in particular, and c) your analysis supported with evidence of
what unforeseen ramifications the act has/will have on defining the future of
English language curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
“In
accordance with the Accreditation Act, all ESL programs of study that are SEVP,
Student and Exchange Visitor Program- certified must either possess or have
applied for accreditation before Dec. 15, 2011, by a regional or national
accrediting agency recognized by the Department of Education,”
The SEVP Accreditation of English Language
Training Programs Act for ESL is a huge step towards equality and fairness in
education for nonimmigrant students in the US. This Act provides some
governance by the US department of education, that will help ensure exchange
students are getting structured and legitimate language classes from “stand-alone,”
and “combined schools” whose teacher are properly trained to meet ESL program
standards. This, also, means ESL programs will now be regulated to make sure there
is systemic growth in ESL programs that really protect and benefit nonimmigrant
students. The systemic part of this process of accrediting ESL programs is
being able to continuously train, collaborate, and grow programs, to better ESL
programs across the country.
The schools that meet Form I-17 for
SEVP, ELT accreditation will ultimately have other schools follow suit that
secures an ESL program status- quo for institutions, administrators, teachers.
Accreditation provides a forum that
holds institutions accountable for their actions, and an expectation to be
upheld. Reading through the www.ice.gov
website, you see the reasons for SEVP initiatives to create safe and regulated
programs that prevent false, or unethical exchange programs, that do not
fulfill their sponsorship obligations. The SVEP, also, strives to enhance
international collaboration.
There is one blatant implication probable
for with The Accreditation of English Language Training programs Act, is the
feasibility of the SVEP to oversee and integrate such a large cultural spectrum
of educational needs that are in demand for ELA programs. To satisfy all the
needs of the varying types of English language needs; i.e., Diversity in
language and cultural adaptation in English for specific purposes and English
for academic purposes is overwhelming. To expect the SEVP to monitor and set
standards for all ELA program training standards, is hard to accept.
The ramifications that this Act
could entail may be that reputable “stand alone” schools cannot meet SVEP
accreditation standards because they are so specific to a certain population or
culture. I know that DPS, Denver Public schools, ESL programs are more focused
on Hispanic populations because there is more demand. However, Vietnamese
refugee populations exist in south Denver school, that require specific ESL
programs that do not match the needs of Hispanic immigrant ESL programs. ESL
standards cannot be combined easily for overall success.
There
are usually financial limitations that limit school systems from receiving
funding for the minority ESL courses to further serve nonimmigrant students. Basic,
but still effective ESL programs could be held back from growth because inadequate
recourses that prevent training and accreditation standards. Such regulation
for accreditation could even further an economic divide in immigrant and
nonimmigrant programs. For uphold ethics in educations, the I-17 Form should,
also, enact policy that trains and accredits institutions, administration, and
teachers that serve immigrant and refugee ESL programs.
The Accreditation of
English Language Training Programs Act. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2015.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Freire, a Wise Man
Tenth
Letter:
“Without
discipline, one does not create intellectual work, read texts seriously, write
carefully, observe and analyze facts, or establish relationships among them,”
Freire, pp. 155.
Out
of all Freire’s writings, this one I kind of have to disagree with, because I
feel like sometimes peoples passions guide them to do one or all of these
things naturally. I am, also, flattered because I feel like what he talks about
in this chapter makes me feel like a better student, with more discipline than
I thought. Sometimes, for me at least, I feel like I naturally create
intellectual work, read texts seriously, write carefully, observe and analyze
facts, or establish relationships among them, because I’m present and engaged.
Don’t get me wrong, sitting here tonight, taking the time to write this
reflection, is indeed discipline for me because I want to go out, or rest.
However, my point is more so, study regarded as “disciplined,” seems to have a
negative connotation, when really experiences, curiosity, and wonder for life
and interactions, whether it be traveling, reading, or school can be a
effortless acquisition of something you love.
Last
Words:
“The
process of knowing, which involves the whole conscious self, feelings,
emotions, memory, affects, an epistemologically curious mind, focused on the
object, equally involves other thinking subjects, that is, others also capable
of knowing and curious,” Freire, pp. 165
I
love, love, love this quote, and cannot wait to post this too my blog. I’ve
always been told about this “knowing,” mostly in religious institutions. But
dissecting this idea of a “knowing,” is really interesting. I always felt it to
be an intuition of sorts and this quote by Freire connects my exiting ideas on
why we choose, and do, and to be who we are, to new ideas on “growing and
knowing.” There is mystery and curiosity
around our education, what we choose to learn, and our path in life, paradoxically,
to individuals “know,” the choices that lead them to their destiny, which is
based off a collaboration of emotions, memory, “gut feelings,” whatever this
unexplainable ability is, is somewhat more explainable, or just more
understood, after reading this chapter.
Freire,
P. (1998). Tenth Letter. Last Words.
In Teachers as cultural workers: Letters to those who dare teach (pp.
155-173). Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
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