From Alices sharing, I learned that teaching reading is to teaching students how to understand it.

Although I understand this concept, it is difficult for me to put this notion into practice. But, fortunately, Alice provided us some tips or techniques such as the use of fish bone or mapping to teach reading comprehension. When completing the figure of fish bone, students can construct the meaning of the story or article by analyzing the content. The top-down process of teaching reading is aimed to develop student as active readers, rather than merely listening to the teacher explaining the reading message. Besides the reading materials given, students can complete the fish bone with their own experience and in the following activity write their own stories. The integration of reading and writing skills facilitates students development of English proficiency more quickly. As for group fives presentation, I can hardly recall all the details. What I remembered is that each student read out one sentence of the article and after that the teacher explained the content of the article. The disadvantage of this way to teach reading is that students only paid attention to the particular sentence they were participate for. This was not the real purpose of reading. I agreed with Alices advice that the teacher could give time for students to read the article silently even though they might face some challenge or difficulty in the process of reading. To solve the problem of reading difficulty to certain students, some training of reading strategies is necessary. For example, the teacher can introduce how to skim and scan, how to look for key words, and how to take notes or highlight. I think students will benefit a lot from using these reading strategies.

As a whole, our presentation was not good in terms of some drawbacks. To begin with, we made a wonderful opening as a warm-up: background knowledge of General MacArthur and key vocabulary. Students in this part behaved actively and made us feel encouraged. Then, we asked students to read the entire prayer to get general idea; yet, it didnt work so much since we saw many bewildered faces. Instead, we should give students work sheets to construct mind maps of the prayer. Next, the class went to main part which I thought there was a lot of room to improve. We originally envisaged that the content is quite easy for students, so we decided to use questioning skills to go through. However, it fell into teacherled class for students couldnt respond to questions right away. We also attempted to relate the content to students experiences. As Alice suggested, we ought to make work sheets including questions were going to ask and some activities like pattern practice. Moreover, we needed to cut down the main part because students may not concentrate for such a long time. Last, 4R game was used to review the lesson. During the game, we played a song with faster tempo to initiate students interests and make them feel excited. Most students seemed to be involved; however, it was a sort of time-consuming. Alice later provided her opinions about playing this game which I regarded as a better and efficient method. In the end of the class, we required students an assignment and gave them tips and guidelines for implementing a theory of reading. According to this teaching, we found that it was really tough and challenging while standing on the stage. Although we made a lesson plan, managing the class is another big problem. This experience revealed a crucial issue: more classroom observations and teaching practices are significantly required. Whats more, it is essential to keep ourselves open-mined, creative, and knowledgeable during our teaching career.

Its definitely not easy to put theories into practice, especially for novice teachers like you. Generally speaking, your teaching demonstration was well-organized with a meaningful topic and clear objectives. There are things need to be mended, of course. I am sure a teacher who reflects on her own teaching constantly would make progress in the process. Pretty soon, you would shape your own teaching styles and have more confidence.

ReflectionsWriting reflections about the lessons I have taught has helped me to improve my teaching skills. The following reflections are a selection from my student teaching experience, although writing reflections has been continuous during my teacher preparation program. Reflection Entry- Week Five 1. Event description: On Thursday, I taught my first large-group lesson to the fifth-grade group. While preparing for the lessons, I found the teachers manual to be laid out in a fairly selfexplanatory manner. My mentor and I discussed some alternative ways for presenting the lesson to suit the students needs. I reviewed the lesson well and made notes to myself in the manual. My mentor and I agreed that she would observe this lesson. I began the lesson mentally focused on the upcoming reading comprehension questions that I was to ask the students. Yet, the first part of the lesson was to be reading the vocabulary lists and so, I approached the vocabulary differently than what the students were expecting. When this happened the students were quick to let me know that I forgot how it was supposed to be done. Consequently, some of the students used this opportunity to continue to disrupt the first part of the lesson. Some began giggling and I discouraged their behavior by warning to take away a positive consequence (a Popsicle stick). Then, one student began coughing repeatedly. I asked him to get a drink and he complied, only to come back coughing louder. I looked at my mentor and she told him to go the nurses for a cough drop. He came back without the medicine and continued to cough. I told him if he continued then he would have a stick taken away. He immediately began to argue that he could not help it. So, I warned him that he would have to go into the hall because he was disrupting the lesson. After a few more coughs I sent him reluctantly into the hall. 2. Feelings and Actions: After the start of the lesson, I intuitively knew that the students would see my mistake as a lack of preparation and confidence on my part. I felt that I lost them right off. I was not upset at the coughing student, but I was a little disappointed in myself for not seeing the importance of the introductory task of vocabulary words. 3. Learning: After the students questioned me, I should have just went ahead and told them that we were going to do the lesson a little differently, instead of backtracking. I also

learned that although I felt I maintained my professional demeanor through the coughing episode, I saw what I would be up against for future lessons. I would set a few ground rules before the next time and consider the initial task as important. Whats most significant to me was that while the lesson wasnt very successful, we got through it. I was surprised at my comfort level. I maintained my humor, laughing with my mentor about the lesson later.

Reflection Entry- Week Ten 1. Event description: Today I taught the second graders a reading lesson. We went over vowels, phonograms and blends, vocabulary words from past and new stories, read a short story, completed workbook activities, and reviewed over 100 Brigance Sight Words. The lesson was planned for 30 minutes. 2. Feelings and Actions: The lesson started out dragging. I reviewed how many minutes I should spend on each activity. After 10 minutes ticked by I immediately saw that I needed to pick up the speed, or we would not finish. I was reminded of previous suggestions given to me from my mentor about how to improve my pacing. So, I sped up the lesson with voice inflections and verbal encouragement. I was able to finish the lesson on time, but I felt as if I had pushed the students too quickly toward the end of the lesson. 3. Learning: I learned that I have become more aware of time frames and lesson completion. I have also learned that I can use delivery strategies that encourage students to focus and work more quickly. I also learned I need to monitor the time spent on activities within each lesson more closely.

Reflection Entry- Week Eleven 1. Event description: This week I taught language arts to various groups and grade levels for full periods. The fifth graders are with me for two hours each day. Their lessons are writing, reading comprehension, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. 2. Feelings and Actions: I have been working to pace my lessons these last weeks. Today, to my surprise, the students and I were finished with all the lessons and activities ten minutes early! I chose to review spelling on white boards to use up the last of the class time efficiently. The transition went smoothly. 3. Learning: Looking back at my first lessons, I never thought that I could get through all the lessons in time. Having strict time constraints was relatively new to me. When I taught for Head Start, our time frames and lesson planning followed the childrens interests. Bird walks, or incidental learning was the normal course for lessons and required for future planning. We based achievement on the individuals growth. In becoming a certified educator, I knew that I would be held accountable for content area curricula and student progress. I also knew this would be one of my major obstacles to overcome. Working with suggestions from my mentor, I developed strategies for pacing. For example, it helped to keep an eye on schedules, time wasters, and maintaining student interest. I feel confident I have achieved success with lesson pacing.

I tend to do that when I get nervous: the whole experience becomes a total blur. But I will at least spell my process out for you! I chose this piece because I have a fear of teaching Poe. I adore Poe; hes one of my favorites, but Im always nervous about treating morbid subjects with kids. I think they should be treated, and I think they should read Poe, but it still makes me anxious. So, I decided to do a Poe piece to sort of stretch my teaching abilities. The work we read this semester that most inspired me was Blau. I thought his ideas were truly the best ways to get students understanding and interpreting literature; however, his techniques were geared toward college-age students, and I teach middle-schoolers, so I tried to pare down some of his ideas as best I could for my presentation/lesson plan. A few of the ideas I used were reading together in class, using the jump in technique (which I have started using in my classes with some hesitation, but I have found to work extraordinarily well; its my new favorite way to read as a group), discussing interpretations with classmates, and allowing the students to come to interpretations on their own. I have been trying this year to stay out of the conversation as much as possible, only jumping in to restate a students assertion for clarification or to correct a mistaken assumption. I also pulled from Salvatori. I liked the idea of having students write through difficulty, though I thought the difficulty papers might be a bit much for them. So instead, I decided to have them re-read, using a double-column notebook (something many are familiar with) to note difficulties and possible solutions. This way, it shows the student is engaged with the text by noting where they lack understanding, and trying to engage in a conversation with themselves to achieve understanding. Then, I thought a la Blau, they could share these difficulties in groups to try and help each other come to a richer understanding of the text. Finally, I capped it with the group discussions on literary terms to help cement the various literary terms and their applications in their minds. Though, in retrospect, I think I worded some of the questions badly, and I think I could have posed better questions. But Im not sure if thats me being self-conscious. Any feedback there? Someone asked me about the homework assignment at the end of class, and I forgot to mention how long I would ask them to make it: I would say about 1 1/2 pages, typed, double spaced. I would not count this as a formal essay paper, and so I would not require it to be as formal as an academic essay. I would look more for ideas and the way they present the point of view (accuracy and creativity) than the formal language; though I would, of course, check for proper grammar. In any case, I hope you enjoyed my presentation and remember more of it than I do "Hearing comes naturally to most people and requires no special training. But listening is an acquired skill that takes practice" (48) Within David Zarefsky's textbook, Public Speaking: Strategies for Success, an entire chapter is focused on the value of Critical Listening. At the beginning of the semester I told the class that not only were we going to learn how to craft well-written and well-delivered speeches in class, but we were also going to hone our critical listening skills and become experts at listening to speeches. Several students shared with me that they did not see the value in learning to listen because the class was about speaking. On the first day of class, one or two members were frustrated that I had planned to regularly play speeches in class for us to evaluate as a group, but I assured them that by listening to well-

organized speeches and determining why they were seen as successful, we would learn to craft successful speeches of our own. Listening is also an important skill needed in order to evaluate the speeches of others so we were able to strengthen our arguments during times of public debate. Over the course of the semester, I believe I was able to change that opinion and clearly demonstrate not only the difference between hearing and listening, but also the value of listening within public speaking. Zarefsky outlines Listening as important when checking for accuracy, giving (and getting) feedback and evaluating messages. "...you need to listen in order to evaluate what you hear. Unless you listen carefully, you seldom can know how to respond to or evaluate the message" (49). Evaluation of the class speeches was an important part of the peer review process throughout the semester but this skill took time to develop. During the peer review process, students were provided a set of evaluative questions to follow while listening to a classmate's speech. To prepare to put on our 'listening ears' I created several listening exercises for the beginning of the semester. Fun exercises included a modified version of the "telephone" party game, listening 'pop assignments' and listening group game time with candy rewards for teams with the most points. Initial responses to the telephone game really showed that the exercise truly made an impression. Students were told a story once and then had to relay that story to a new person who entered the room, as the story went down the line of students, it changed significantly. Although the class exercise was humorous and entertaining, they also learned that listening really makes a difference. The goal of all of the exercises was to help teach students that they can make informed decisions by analyzing and evaluating the statements of others. Anyone can make a decision, but an informed decision demonstrates of level of maturity of the listener and respect for the speaker. As the semester continued I really felt justified in the level of importance I placed upon listening as the students began to clearly understand the value when their classmates began to deliver speeches. As we listened, students were able to assess and question the speakers statements; critically evaluating what they heard and several challenged themselves to listen to opinions opposite their own. Several students came to me throughout the semester and have discussed the speeches of their peers with respect as well as critical judgment; this encouraged me greatly. Thinking ahead to future semesters, I want to find ways to incorporate critical listening assignments into classes whenever possible. The students in my classes were able to understand that listening actually was a critical skill that aided them in their own choices and decisions. Should I have an opportunity to teach a writing course, a similar peer review evaluation process will be set in place as well. Critically listening to speeches and evaluating the messages helped the students to also gauge the potential success of their own speeches, and many began to follow the style and organization of those in the class who they considered the better speakers.
This week the issue on aural and oral skills was challenging for everybody I think. At least, teaching listening and speaking has been something which I did not actually like . The reason for this most of the students tell they don't like those lessons and their prejudice merged with mine within the course of time. I still remember my first hour in teaching listening. It was something abstract for me

and for the students 5 years ago in my first course. However, grammar teaching or reading activities were quite nice on part of me as we had "concrete" books rather than "sounds" which students could not hear. As I gained experience and thought about what to do in that course, I began to read more on them (teaching listening and speaking) and I got the importance of listening skills in L2 teaching. In fact, I had been affected by Direct Method at first, then Behaviorism, then Communicative Approach then.. :) Now I am an Eclectic!! But, how I understood the importance of listening was the order of L1 acquisition, and it was true that we just listened to our environment for a long time before producing a word except for babling.

Now we have films hours, internet pages for listening and speaking, English music is favourite everywhere etc. This week I have reviewed everything again. Especially, Miller's article was quite informative for me to check my pre-listening and post-listening activities. By the way, delicious.com was really delicious because I used to bookmark my favourite sites on the browser and the fear of formatting my computer was a nightmare.

The reading was very interesting, although talks about how were the listening activities in early days of english language teaching, I compare to nowadays and is very similar. I think that some things have to change inmediately, if not we are continue teaching in a traditional way and thats not competitive.

Learning a second language it is essential to develop the four skills, writing and reading are skills that have to be guided with instructions but not listening and speaking because are skills that we develop automatically as native speakers. The nature of the listening process. Many things that we speak, first we listened it, this skills is very important in the classroom because it provides input for the learner. Listen is a process of decoding phonemes that are the smallest contrastive units in the sound system of a language, phonemes are link together to form words then phrases, utterances (speech) and finally all these together form complete and coherent texts. Almost all the time, we use our previous language to understand something new, and listening not is the exception teacher have to help learners

to understand what they are hearing by using what they already know. There are different types of listening that can be classified according to these variables: purpose for listening, role of the listener, type of text being listened to. If the listener take part in the interaction, it is reciprocal listening. Listening in practice. In a classroom there are many types of students, for that reason personalize the content of the lesson and give them some control over it, each lesson these things are something difficult to apply for the teacher. However it is possible, for example providing extension tasks which take the listening material as a point of departure. These tasks have to be centered on the learner not the teacher, if the learner makes active contributions to their own learning its a signal that he/she is getting involved in their process of learning.

TYPES OF LISTENING ACTIVITIES. It was very interesting to read this article because gave me many tips of listening activities and some ideas that not always certain responses means something in special and that sometimes, for example when is used a song as activity, teachers have to be very careful selecting it, because it's probably that learners don't answer in a good way because the song is old for them or due other reasons. That's why as mention the author it is very important to adapt activities to each group of students, becase each group also each learner have different needs so activities are not going to be interesting for the whole class. Inclusive, coursebook listening activities have to be adapt.

Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input. There are three types of listening strategies, are classify depending on the the listener process the input.

Top-down strategies, the listener have to remember background, and analyse the context the type of text and the language, all these help him/her to interpret and predict what is next. Bottom-up strategies, based on the the text, listener relies on the language in the message.

A PROCESS APPROACH There are sub-skills that enable us to perform as a listeners but it is difficult to see if that sub-skills exist. A way of identifying goals for listening practice, it is basing the target behavior towards which the L2 listener aims: upon the processes that contribute to successful L1 listening. If we propose to compare the performance of L2 and L1, we can see that it does not concern the forms of language that are used by native users. It relates to the processes acquired through using the target language many years, there are routines to hand out the language established. A RATIONALE

Taking processes as guide principle is that they are part of a wider framework of theory, listening behavior indicate the functions that individual processes perform. Process approach is concrete, listeners can model certain aspects of listening, and for example the way listeners will recognize words, using stress or intonation. Sub-skills are hypothetical, it is assume that there are certain distinct and separable abilities that enable learners to perform well. Process approach recognize that L2 listener possesses a fully formed listening competence in L1 due the practice through the years using the native language, so that competence has to be modified to acquire the new type of skill adding new routines to existing ones. Also, it will be necessary to add unfamiliar new routines and in the same way that it took time and practice to achieve L1, for L2 likewise it will take time and practice and maybe will be more than L1 because it is not the native language so it will be more difficult. DECODING PROCESSES The listeners ear receives many of acoustic sensations, that listener match with the sounds. Listener has to recognize two types of larger patter: grammatical and its intonation. Information processing provides a way of classifying the decoding processes by relating them to the units of language. Decoding processes reflect a need for the learner to adapt to the unfamiliar characteristics of the L2. The practice needs to be quite intensive. The expert listener commands a set of decoding routines that are automatic, and automaticity is a goal for decoding practice. MEANING-BUILDING PROCESSES Listener has to contextualize the information of the speaker to have a full understanding of the message, including his/her knowledge of the world, of the speaker and other things involved. Learners inclination is to transfer processes from L1 to L2, and this is due the practice of the native language. The listener has to lend much greater effort to decoding, which diverts attention that would normally be given to meaning building. Amount of information derived from decoding is likely to be much less than it is in the first language. Meaningbuilding thus needs to be practiced just as decoding does. ARLY DAYS At the beginning of English language teaching, listening served to introduce new grammar through the dialogues, until the 70s was taught a skill. Because the technology in 1984 listening texts were passages of written prose which were read aloud probably by the teacher. The listening format had three principal characteristics: v The three stages, this is very similar that we use nowadays because until these years in pre-listening teachers present the new vocabulary, in post-listening teachers check the answers and analyze the language of the listening activity. v Listening at two levels has two phases, extensive listening when learners listen to get a general idea and intensive listening learners listen detailed to answer certain questions. v Multiple-play was used to accustom the learner to the rhythms and intonation of the language.

Extensive listening have been questioned because in real life there is not opportunity to listen twice but the listener has the advantage to observe the context of the conversation and the facial and body language of the speakers. Also in real conversations there is the opportunity to interrupt and ask for clarification that in dialogues recorded not. CURRENT PRACTICE PRE-LISTENING. v Pre-teaching vocabulary. Some reasons for not pre-teaching all the vocabulary are: It takes to much time, dont provide the opportunity to prepare the learners for a real situation. It is better to teach only critical words, which could not be understand. v Establishing context. Teachers have to give students a general idea of the listening, but not too much because it will be dangerous. v Creating motivation. It is essential to give students a purpose for listening. DURING LISTENING v Pre-set questions. Questions are important because can play a guide role, if theres no questions students are not going to listen for specific information and also may be they are not going to understand what is the purpose, they will not know what they are listening for. v Checking answers. It is a difficult phase for the reason that student may feel insecurity because they dont have the information before listening. POST-LISTENING v Functional language, the dialogues in the listening material have to have it. Commonly, represents types of human interaction and they have to contextualize with functions of the language such as refusing, apologizing, offering etc, functions that will happen in a real conversation. v Inferring vocabulary, listeners have to inferred meaning of unknown words because in real conversations theres not teacher or dictionary, for that reason is very important pre-teach minimal vocabulary to give learners the opportunity to gain experience inferring vocabulary. v Paused play, in early days it was used to repetition, practicing intonation but nowadays we have to be careful because it will be associated as a kind of parroting. v Final play, it is time to clarify points of the recording which listeners didnt decode, it will be easier if they have a transcript.

Teaching Speaking and Listening is designed to help you improve your teaching of speaking and listening so that your pupils develop into confident and skilful speakers and listeners. It contains targeted units for self- and collaborative-study, with activities and video clips showing effective approaches to teaching speaking and listening in the English classroom

from Year 7 to Year 11. Some of the materials and video clips have been designed to be used with pupils to provide them with models of effective speaking and listening. These materials have been adapted for use by English subject leaders, English teachers and teaching assistants. March 4 2004. While reading my students' work I noticed two distinct things. One was how amazing their stories were. The second was that most of the writings were in the present (tense.) I decided to do a quick refresher about the past tense. I first asked my class to get into study pairs and then I wrote a list of past tense words on the board. I asked each pair to select five words and create sentences with each one. I then went around to each pair and corrected any errors. When I corrected an error I would ask that pair to explain to me why I did so. At first my class didn't understand what I was doing mainly because have not corrected them like this before. I think they will do better next time I use this style.... March 30 2004. Today I tackled a fine grammar point that I have noticed my students have been missingthe article THE! This article is difficult, especially for my Asian students. I photocopied an Azar text [see Resources] to help my students and myself understand this all too common but difficult word. I didn't get as far as I would have wanted and I sensed the class did not understand my explanations so I asked them to write sentences using "the" for homework. I hope some extra time will help them understand what I was trying to explain. I plan on reviewing their sentences in class tomorrow and using their work as a springboard to further explanations. April 6, 2004. Today we wrote letters of grievance. I had the students write letters about something in Boston they felt needed to be changed. Most of the students wrote about the public transportation system and how they thought the city could improve (it.) I am tempted to have them continue this exercise and do formal letters to the city. However, I don't know if some of my students would feel comfortable expressing anything negative to the city. I think I will encourage them to write more and to express any grievances they have when they are ready to. April 20, 2004. Today was such a fantastic class. My students produced some lively writings about what they did over the break. I gave them the writing prompt. "What did you do with the time you would have been in class that week?" I don't think they understood what I wanted them to write because at first they wrote about how they spend hours studying English and how much they missed not having class. I noticed what they were writing as I was circulating around the room, so I stopped them and had a little discussion session. I said "I want to know what you did over the vacation...Did you go to the park? If you went somewhere different from your normal routine for coming to school write about that." Once I said that their writing changed and they started writing about how they went with their children to the mall and to different places in the city like the public garden. Sometimes when I give writing prompts I need to be a bit more specific, because after I was done their work was phenomenal. April 28, 2004. Today was not a good class attendance-wise. Most of my students were absent. I only had four students. I had elaborate plans to teach but since the class was too small my plans would not have worked. Therefore, I had the class do another activity. After we read a dialogue I had the students write sentences using some of the words in the activity.

It took them long time to write these sentences because my higher-level students were absent. However, after reading their work I can relate better to the students who were there who are sometimes so confused they can't ask a question. I am glad to know where they are coming from now and I will write up a worksheet using some of their sentences for inspiration. May 4, 2004. Today had to be one of my best days as an ESOL teacher! Because of the writing exercises and my extensive conversation with Sr. Peggy Nawn I was able to present my students with a concise lesson about direct object pronouns, possessive adjectives, and subject pronouns that each person understood beautifully. When I used examples inspired by my students to show common errors it was like a light bulb went off above some of them. They all understand this lesson and I feel really good. I am still new at this so I am learning as I go, sometimes, but I never thought to ask what my students might know about a topic before I present it. I think I will do this again when we get to the next unit and I know I will keep this in mind for the future.

In the past week, I started to follow my SMART goal. The first thing I do is watching TVB Pearl News and talking to the exchange student. At the beginning, I find that it is quite odd and embarrassing for me to talk to the exchange student with my influent and unintelligible English. Fortunately he shows welcome to me and response to me actively and pleasingly. It makes me less nervous and more open to talk to him. Mostly we talk about the subject we are studying and also the daily lives like what place in CUHK you love most and which sport you love most and so on. After two times of chat, I feel more confident to talk with him and I find it is very interesting to talk with an exchange student. Its a nice start! And I will keep it up! For watching the TVB Pearl News, it is not very difficult for me as I did it before and there are subtitles showing what the reporter said so I sometimes read the subtitles automatically once I miss the content. However, I would work hard on listening to the reporter by not watch the subtitles!
What have I learned so far? This subject has helped me a lot. Listening skills are the most difficult to develop in our students. I had no idea on how to work them or apply them in class with my students. I know now that we have to implement three stages in a listening activity to make it successful.The stages are: Pre-listening, While-listening and post-listening. For example,in real life it is unusual for people to listen to something without having some idea of what they are going to hear.The same happens in a listening activity, the pre-listening stage help us to predict what he topic is going to be about. An example to talk about the while-listening stage could be when we listen to an interview with a famous person, We don't need to listen to a previous explication from the interviewer to know what are they talking about, because the fact that is a famous person may help us know about her/his life. The while listening stage

is when we are listening to the audio of the activity. Then the post-listening stage is when we check our students understanding, we can not skip any stage because they have to be linked to achieve a good listening class. As I mentioned before, this course have helped a lot in acquiring knowledge I had no idea. Thank you Teacher Margaret! :)

The reading is focused In different aspects to help students read or write in a foreing language.From the aspects he mentioned,I like the one he mentioned that different tools are used like: plan activities in advance and supply key language because we can apply activities focus on according with their previous knowledge in target language. This reading helped me think in many things we commonly do by nature but we just didnt give importance to or think about them. The objective of receptive skills are the development of the learners and how they can understand texts by using their previous knowledge.How human beings react to certain situations. Like when we interact with someone else, we already now what to expect from the speaker or like the example mentioned on the reading that explains when we read a newspaper and unconsciously we already know where to identify the different sections.

ESL Diversity Project Reflection:

John Slashinski On the face of the entire ESL situation there is much to examine, or more true to the matter, much to expose. It seems most ESL programs across our nation are not where they should be, not where they're perceived to be. Most programs are of a biased or an unprepared mindset and most teachers who are interacting with ESL, overall, for the first time are...clueless, at best. However, this somewhat to complete lack of knowledge of ESL needs to change. Now, this is not to say all ESL programs are detrimental or lacking, because this

is completely false. In fact, some ESL programs are well-known for their methodic pillars of structure and how they repeatedly and successfully accommodate ELL learners, both of minimal (to none) and substantial (to some) English competencies. These good examples strewn about our nation are shining pedagogical instances to where inadequate ESL programs can directly look up to, to seek the clarity and proper frames of reference needed to treat ESL students as they should with respect. And, weak programs as well as unfamiliar teachers need to not hesitate in looking up, so to say, for guidance. If there isn't a perspective change in how ESL students are predominately dealt with, typically in a minimized approach, the consequences will be severe and only snowball through avoiding the true, very fixable problems at hand. But, what exactly is there to fix? Above all else, awareness needs to be promoted and fully supported. In each of our schools there needs to be an expected acceptance to the uniqueness that encompasses ESL programs and their students, not to mention their teachers. What I'm speaking of here is diversity, overall. What I'm preaching here is Multicultural and Bilingual sensitivity. All three concepts Diversity, Multiculturalism, and Bilingualism -- must be established in our schools if we are to spearhead this ESL difficulty. And yes, it seems like a massive task to accomplish, yet it's achievable. In reality, the problems that are seemingly inundating ESL programs are no more serious than we perceive them to be. Despite ESL's widespread scope in our nation, it can easily be attenuated by focusing our collective minds to learning but, more so, wanting to learn -- about the very ESL children we teach. It's a matter of culture, a sense of pride within each ethnic group. And if neither of these are recognized from an educated perspective then all is lost from the start. Take away a person's right to speak their native tongue and you strip them of their soul. Take away a student's chance to interact with their peers and you make them disappear. This said, we, as teachers, need to be aware that from our English-speaking frames of reference, from our cultural stances, we are not the only ones with viewpoints, especially ones that matter or have distinct authority. We need to consider our students surrounding us, especially in ESL classrooms that have their own ways of living, communicating and expressing. They have their culture embedded. All these considerations are essential to realize and accept if we strive to ensure ESL programs are improved and made a continual success.

So, I say to all teachers, whether you're mainstream gaining ESL students along the way or if you're strictly ESL-based to assist such students know your ESL students. Educate yourselves about their cultures, languages, social norms and social expectations; it is likely they are completely different than our own. To know this is to have the upper-hand in accommodating students and making them feel at ease, making them feel just as their English-speaking peers do as intelligent human beings. I also implore teachers to read about social theories and applications, both from ethnographic and moralistic viewpoints. This will benefit everyone involved. In all, ESL topics are only complicated and seen as a struggle because we've deemed them as such. Solutions are available; knowledge, in a greater abundance. So, why such hesitation on our part? It is ourselves only and our lack of supportive action. We need to reverse negative perspectives and strive for a realized, revitalized movement. This movement calls for constructive sensitivity and universal application in all classrooms. This and only this will yield the change that's long been overdue in ESL.

Reflection on ESL Awareness Christine Zelno

If you asked me what I knew about ESL as a topic before participating in this collaborative diversity awareness project, I would not have a whole lot to say. I had no real background knowledge, no experience, no opinion, no true understanding of anything ESL before this accessed opportunity to learn. Articles, case studies, book, and blogs exposed, for me, the dilemma of providing comprehensible instruction to ESL students. The role of differentiated instruction in diverse mainstream classrooms and the place of students' first languages in learning academic content were mentioned, if not discussed at length, in every single thing I read. I believe it is safe to say that teaching ESL students is not an easy task, and the only way to do it effectively and correctly requires an effort on ones part to first become educated and familiar with the best methods,

strategies, and approaches, based on established learning and motivational theories. In examining case studies where ESL students were mainstreamed, I was given a glimpse into the experiences, and ultimately, the needs, of teachers with no background or education on teaching ESL students in their classrooms. Sad to say, most teachers have little or no training on the best methods and approaches to teach ESL students in their mainstream classrooms, so integrating them is a major challenge. From the teachers relationship with the ESL teacher/teachers in the school to how the teacher views the ESL students in his or her classroom, the factors that affect the successful integration of ESL students into a mainstream classroom are numerous and complicated. Reading the articles of my group members, developed from observations, interviews, personal experience, case study investigation, and documentary analysis, served to educate me further on the ESL topic, and, overall, the very necessary improvements classroom instruction of ESL students truly needs. If a teacher is not educated on theories of motivation and theories of learning, on being culturally aware so to be culturally sensitive, on knowing how to communicate with ESL students regardless of his or her background in the language(s) of his or her students, failure is inevitable. The teacher will fail the students by not being prepared for them, by not giving them every chance to succeed, by not knowing any better or not caring enough to take the time to find a way to be effective in teaching these students. The students will fail to assimilate, develop, and truly learn without major complications and struggles, without frustration and embarrassment, without being misunderstood, beyond the realm of the language barrier, on a daily basis. I do not want to be the reason another ESL student does not do as well as he or she could do, because I was not giving them every possible way to learn, understand, and succeed. I want to educate myself and be educated on the best ways to teach and communicate with ESL students. I want to be ready for them. Mathematics being my content area, I will be faced with the challenge of teaching difficult, often confusing concepts and lessons in a rigid timeframe. This will make the consistency of my methods of checking my students understanding, correcting them on their mistakes and eliciting feedback from them all the more important. I will need to communicate my expectations clearly, and constantly encourage constructive criticism and participation from my students. Knowing the importance of self-reflection, every single day, after the lesson, I should be asking myself: Did I achieve my goal in teaching this lesson or in doing this activity with my students?; Were my students, happy, working, and interested?; Was I well prepared; Was I checking my students understanding throughout the lesson or activity?; Did I use good correction techniques? If I am doing my job in serving my students, I should be able to answer those questions affirmatively.

I realize how important it will be to remember that my students need to understand what the whole class is doing, and for them to know what is expected of them. My behavior, my teaching style, and my instructional methods will need to stimulate and engage my ESL students, and provide a level of comfort and challenge for them at the same time. I will need to put my understanding of motivational theories and theories of student learning to work every day when dealing with ESL students. But I am up for the challenge, especially now that I know what the challenge really is.

Reflection on ESL/ELL Diversity Collaboration Erin Rossiello

ESL/ELL awareness was something of a weak and vulnerable area for me as an educator before we began this project as a group. I work in a very affluent, nondiverse school district for the most part and the amount of non-native speaking English students is extremely low. This is not to say when a student who does enroll in the school fails to receive the appropriate and necessary services however, most of us, as teachers, do not experience this on a regular basis or have to modify our curriculum to accomodate. In the beginning stages of my research, I spoke first with who I believed to be the ESL/ELL teacher in my school. He was exceptionally gracious and invited me into his classroom. Unfortunately, I immediately encountered a problem, which was that we do not have an actual ESL/ELL program. The state requires a minimum of eleven to officially hold the class/program and we only have four currently. This was the first piece of information that was eye-opening. Luckily, I have a former colleague and friend who I knew was a former ESL/ELL student and she was who I spoke with next. She is from Columbia and is quite successful today so I knew I would be able to get the perspective of being both a native of another country but also being fully immersed into American culture and language. Her interview truly helped me realize how uninformed I was about ESL/ELL students and their daily routines and challenges. I cannot even begin to imagine how scary and intimidating it must be to be uprooted from everything and everyone you've ever known and move to a whole new world with a whole new language.

Being able to observe the ESL/ELL class changed my views the most however. I have to admit I went in with the preconceived notion that all the students would be Spanish-speaking students who had very poor language skills and would be quite unmotivated. Yet, when I walked into the room, I saw the exact opposite. These students were diverse in their heritage and languages, very motivated and interested in who I was and why I was there. I am so glad I was proven wrong in my assumptions. As open-minded as I believe myself to be, obviously, I fell into the common trap of believing what is portrayed in the media. These students work so hard to master a new language but still maintain their culture and I never truly realized how tough it is to maintain that balance. As far as the Special Education dynamic in ESL/ELL, these students truly amaze and inspire me. Not only do they have the challenge to learn English but to start off with a disadvantage as far as ease of learning makes it that much harder. The three students I had the privilege to observe and speak with reached me in a way that I've never experienced before and actually have me considering how I can work with this population of students and make a difference. These kids carry a huge responsibility as the main English-speakers in their families and they do not let their disabilities hinder them in anyway. They have a purpose to serve for their families and they take it very seriously. Working with this group has been a very good experience for me. This is the largest project I have ever worked on in a group format and I'm proud of what we produced. I feel that it is something not just for a class project but to be used in aiding educators everywhere which I hope will lead to the most effective education for ESL/ELL learners.

ESL Project Reflection Steve Burgoon

I am a creature of habit, as are most of us in this world. I tend to shy away from things that are not familiar to me. When I first began work with my group on this project, I had no idea what to expect. Would I actually be able to help create something for and about a group that I had no common ground with? What would I come away from this assignment with, if anything other than more preconceived notions about who ESLs and ELLs are?

I began my research and almost immediately, I had a moment of clarity. I could approach the subject through an area I felt comfortable with: Technology. How could Technology be used to aid ESL/ELL students? I never imagined how many studies had actually been conducted about this approach, but there were quite a few. A teacher in Texas wrote a grant with AT&T to purchase iPods for ESL students because of their portability and speed. A college professor from New York State teamed up with a video game designer to study the effects of video game environments on ESLs. I was actually beginning to enjoy the process of finding out how various people from my industry were using new and emerging technologies to help educate people. I guess to sum up my experience; Ive changed my way of thinking. If I can use the skill sets I possess to help someone learn, thats not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows? Maybe one day, Ill conduct my own study on the Effects of Public Access Television on the reading acheivement of ESL students. What I do know is that I will keep my mind open to things that are different from me from now on.