Week 1 Responses

The readings for this week were very interesting! I feel that they will all be very beneficial tools for my future teaching endeavours.

While I did enjoy the Scaffolding Language reading and how it brought up the importance of cultural collaboration/awareness, I found the course pack articles to be more rewarding.

In Assessing English-language learners in mainstream classrooms, I started highlighting after the very first sentence. However, the quote that really caught my attention was, "An overwhelming majority of assessment tools are in English only, presenting a potential threat to the usefulness of assessments..." (CP 4). How difficult for a teacher to truly assess their student and how terrible for the students themselves. As if it was not hard enough for them to adjust/learn; even the assessments prove to be an extreme challenge. I liked how this article gave the problem right off the bat and used the rest of the piece to stress the importance and give examples of ELL beneficial and friendly assessments.

As for, Opening Quality Lines of Communication, I was very compelled by the author's story. While it may seem ovbious, I would have never thought to question the parents in that way, using them to provide such valuable information. The fact that the teacher gave the parents this 'assignment' was beneficial in so many areas.
1. It opened up the door for comfortable/quality communication between parent and teacher.
2. It provided the teacher with highle valuable information; most of which may not have ever been attained elsewise.
3. Gave the teacher and student a bond as this letter showed the students how much the teacher really appreaciated and cared about them and who each and everyone one of them really were and what they were all about.

Codeswitching was a little more difficult for me to absorb. One one hand, I agree with the fact that students should not be reprimanded every time they speak 'improper' English grammar. As the very first page states, "Rather than risk the embarrassment of being corrected in front of the class, students became silent", it is crucial that we as educators never silence our students in such a way. However, I do believe in the importance of codeswitching depending on environment. For example, when the teacher was discussing with her students about how individuals dress different depending on the situation, I would have immediately tied in how codeswitching is just like that; we should change how we talk depending on the situation, environment, people involved, etc.. I felt that this article was a little too reserved on stressing the importance of speaking respectfully, clearly and 'school' appropraitely. While I would never want to silence my students or make them feel uncomfortable or unappreciated, I do believe there is a time and a place for more lax language.