State of English Education (3)

Question: What are some educators’ assessment of English education today?

Answer/Some Snippets from the U.S. “If teaching is a difficult act, teaching about teaching is more complex still….” P. 300.

 Quote: “So much change in teacher education is often in response to external demands and state mandates, requiring teacher educators to be flexible and creative enough to manage these external pressures without sacrificing quality teacher preparation.” P. 303.

Quote: “Let me be clear, though: I am not opposed to the evaluation of teachers (or students, for that matter). Like any professional, a teacher should be held to certain standards and able to demonstrate proficiency with those standards. But, to paraphrase Shaun, those in charge of education in the United States seem to have little trust in teachers’ ability to do their jobs well and continue to develop hoops for teachers to jump through to prove they are doing what they should be doing.” P. 304-305.

Comment: The state of English education in Australia, England and the U.S. is pretty depressing. RayS.

Title: “The ‘Wonders’ of Teaching English and Preparing Teachers of English in the United States.” G Marshall, L Reid, and M Shoffner. English Education (April 2012), 300-311.

State of English Education (2)

Question: What are some educators’ assessment of English education today?

 Answer/Quote: “I have now been working in English education for 34 years (12 years on high schools and the rest in teacher education) and have worked all that time (with one exceptional year in the United States) in England itself…. The whole education system has seen wave after wave of major ‘reforms,’ all introduced as the solution to some politically perceived problem, such as falling reading standards (no evidence) ; the reforms than have a few years of life before they are either dropped or superseded by another ‘major reform.’ However, many of the policy mistakes and ideological (not educational) impositions suffered in “England now seem to be taking hold in other English-speaking countries, most recently the United States (Standards) and Australia (National Curriculum).”

Quote: “Overall, the current government is intent on the usual ideological concerns of the right, so the most visible and influential sign will point toward the past, to correct spelling, to handwritten examinations and the appreciation of great texts.” P. 299.

Quote: “English in England still attracts highly motivated, enthusiastic, and promising student teachers; however, 40 percent leave between 5 and 5 years into their careers, a dreadful waste in every sense, of money on training and of good people just beginning important professional lives. It is possible that the current government will overreach itself with too many reforms at once and that teacher unions, parents, and the media will generate a combined campaign that will lead in a different direction. Perhaps it will even lead to an age of Informed Professionalism, when English teachers regain much control over curriculum and assessment? The other direction, sadly much more probable, is a period of much anxiety and instability and with further restrictions to the curriculum, to teacher autonomy and to the nature of teacher training, with an emphasis of on-the-job learning and no attention to reflection and academic knowledge. As Robert Johnson put it in his famous blues song: ‘I got the crossroad blues this mornin Lord/babe, I’m sinkin down.’ ” Pp 299-300,

Comment: Sound familiar? RayS.

Title: “English at the Crossroads in England? Andy Goodwyn. English Education (April 2012), 292-300.

State of English Education (1)

Question: What are some educators’ assessment of English education today?

Answer/Quote: “For me, however, one idea that resonated was the importance of ‘emotional’ or affective engagement in teaching and learning. Being ‘engaged’ with one’s learning is acknowledged as crucial if students are to be successful learners. The concept of engagement has been described as including three aspects—behavioral, cognitive, and affective…. To be fully engaged students need to experience all three of these aspects simultaneously, but for most students in schools this rarely happens. Usually we can coax or cajole our students into being behaviorally engaged, and sometimes we successfully design tasks and activities that promote good, active  cognitive engagement; in my experience, however, it is rare that we are able to get students to really engage emotionally with what we are doing in English, and their most frequent feelings associated with what we do and study in English are boredom or indifference.” P. 289.

Comment: How’s that for an honest assessment of students’ “engagement” in English studies? RayS.

Title: “Teaching English in New Zealand: An Experience of ‘Ache’ ”? Shaun Hawthorne. English Education (April 2012), 288-292.

Stereotyping Adolescents

Question: What are the effects of stereotyping adolescents?

Answer/Quote: “Lesko (2001), in her genealogical examination of th cultural construction of adolescence, argues that ‘common characterizations’ of adolescence (e.g., adolescents as full of raging hormones, adolescents are coming of age into adulthood) comprise ‘a sealed system of reasoning’ that constrains educational practices and possibilities within secondary schools. She explains, for instance, how some educators make linkages between ideas about adolescence and classroom practices and roles in the following ways: ‘Since adolescents have raging hormones, they cannot be expected to do sustained and critical thinking…. Since adolescents are immature, they cannot be given responsibilities in school, at work, or at home.’” Pp. 254-255.

Comment: I cannot identify with that statement about stereotyped adolescents. I’m not holier than thou. I just always looked at my students as individuals with individual characteristics. I just don’t recognize that kind of reasoning. RayS.

Title: “Deficits, Therapists, and a Desire to Distance: Secondary English Pre-service Teachers’ Reasoning about Their Future Students.” R Petrone and MA Lewis. English Education (April 2012), 254-287.

Assessing ESL Students' Reading

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

  Question: How use multiple assessments of ESL students’ progress in reading?

Answer/Quote: “Use multiple measures of reading progress that reflect comprehension and interest, not just skills. Such measures might include:
.checklists of oral reading performance.

.reading strategies the child uses

.reading comprehension skills (“comprehends oral stories,” “literal comprehension,” “inferential comprehension”)

.interests (“samples a variety of materials”)

.applications (“participates in reading groups,” “writes dialogue journal entries.”) Encourage students to maintain a dialogue journal with you in which they assess their own progress as readers.

Include all observations, checklists, and the students’ self-assessments in individual portfolios that are used to maintain information on students, to communicate with other teachers about the students’ progress, to communicate with students about their progress, and to communicate with parents.” P.100.

Comment: Once again, this advice seems to be pertinent to a self-contained class of ESL students, rather than the regular English teacher, but might be adapted to the regular teacher’s program. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Writing and ESL Students

Note: Normally, I do not publish my blog, English Updates, on weekends. However, I publish several other blogs during the week having to do with ideas in English education that are not current, but still useful. On weekends, I will publish samples of these ideas. RayS.

Question: How should writing be taught to ESL students?

Answer: “Teach writing at the same time as reading.” The authors suggest beginning with language experience:

“…start with a language experience approach in which the teacher or an aide transcribes a story that students dictate after they have developed it individually or collectively. These stories can be handwritten in large print on a chalkboard or paper and should be copied over by students so that they have their own record of the stories they have created and can read them later.

“Students’ stories should be written exactly as they are dictated. The teacher should use correct spelling, but preserve students’ sentence structures, even if they are incomplete or ungrammatical. Only in this way can students feel ownership of their stories.”

They should write for different purposes (“…to share experiences with a friend, tell a story, explain a concept, show a sequence of activities, persuade another person, or summarize information.”)

Comment: For older ESL students, I suggest 10-minute essays. At the beginning of each class period, students write for 10 minutes on a topic of their own choosing. The writing should be no longer than 10 minutes. They should not try to write a whole essay.

That night the teacher corrects what the students have written, completing sentence structure, correcting spelling, adding or subtracting punctuation, and altering word choice if the words are inaccurate.

The next day, the students study the corrections, ask questions about what they do not understand. That night they re-write the previous day’s 10-inute essay and keep in a folder a copy of the original and the corrected version for later reference.

Why? The teacher is modeling how to correct and edit problems in writing English.

Of course, students will also learn to write full-length essays. These essays will be corrected in the same way that the essays of native speakers of English are corrected—by labeling and explaining problems.

RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.

Teaching College Writing

Question: What are some questions about the teaching of college writing?

Answer/Quote:

> “How much writing was assigned beyond the required basic and college-level writing courses? Were students prepared for the volume of writing required?”

> “To what extent were students writing in genres other than the essay? Did students expect to write in modes other than the academic essay?”

> “What role did revision have in writing instruction at the college? How did students’ understanding of this task differ from that of faculty?”

> “When faculty assessed student writing, was the emphasis on higher-or lower-order concerns? Did faculty feedback match student expectations?”

> “How extensive was faculty commentary on student writing? What purpose did that commentary serve? To explain a grade? To guide revision? Both? How did students process the commentary?” p. 556.

From Tinberg and Nadeau: The Community College Writer: Exceeding Expectations. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP. 2010.

Comment: How would my readers answer these questions? RayS.

 Title: “Review Essay: Beyond Typical Ideas of Writing: Developing a Diverse Understanding of Writers, Writing, and Writing Instruction.” SK Miller-Cochran. College Composition and Communication (February 2011), 550-559.