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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:

• 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.

For over four centuries, Jesuits have placed their hope for future generations in an education centered on values such as these, the very kind of education in which you invest yourselves every day. These are not just ideas; they are a call to action.

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.

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

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