Masters of Education Multilingual Learners

Module 25

The following slides are from a VLOG I did in the first Module of the Multilingual Learners masters. Here I build my own understanding of definitions of the basics of language, language learning, and language teaching.

Learner Profile “Axel Rose”

Module 25 Unit 2 Group and Individual activity. We made a learner profile and then added things that were important to this particular learner.

The article “12 Ways to Support Student Independence and Autonomy in Learning” (Oak Meadow, n.d.)  offers some ideas that are helpful for many ages such as: allowing them to choose how they will be held accountable for showing evidence of learning, let the student define their own goals, and let them learn from their attempts. These suggestions would be beneficial for Axel, because of his learning characteristics and interests. These suggestions align with our group’s recommendations. Another of the suggestions was to get children outside to play. I believe this might help Axel with his potential burnout. Richard Louv’s organization (which he co-founded), Children and Nature Network (n.d.), advises youth to go outside and connect with not just nature, but people. Some of the resources on his website might help Axel create a more balanced experience for Axel. This survey helps spotlight the opportunities that a child has for connecting with people and outdoors. Below are some other considerations to suggest for Axel that our group created. 

Contributing Members – Andrew, Victor, Jeffrey, Caprice 

In research from Lynch (2018) ‘learner profiles are used to build relationships with students, inclusion in the classroom, decide on the best use of technology and make adaptations for individual students’  Therefore appropriate recommendations for Axel’s development are:- 

• Project based learning, where he can use as many different skills as possible and his grade isn’t based on just reading or writing.
• Projects that involve the school and community would be a connection building aspect, such as: community or school theater, music tech and or lighting (which is often computerized).
• Scaffolded projects, so if he is not following directions it will show immediately and he will be able to correct it with some gentle suggestions from teachers or partners.
• Home-School connection that allows the parents to be part of his learning. Where he has to present to his family, at different times using the mother’s native language, the father’s, and also Chinese, at regular intervals (maybe bi-weekly).
• Constant formative assessments to make sure that he is on track with what is being learned and is meeting or exceeding expectations.
• Break time.  It’s very possible that Axel is suffering from or will suffer from burnout either academically or socially.  His brain is being constantly engaged all day and he might need some time to just be creative and have fun.
• Social Emotional Learning (SEL) check-ins.  Someone who can consistently check in with Axel socially, emotionally and about his learning will greatly benefit someone who might not have the easiest time making friends.

Understanding the Learner through multiculturalism and identities

Understanding identities about multiculturalism and language learners is important because we educators need to be thinking about the students who we serve and their families. We cannot keep a status quo of educating learners in the same way as we did in the 20th century, which was mainstream and geared toward the “average” student or child. As we know from the example of fighter pilots and the great debate about average pilot size – there is no average (Rose, 2013). This also applies to learners. There is not going to be a one size fits all magic lesson plan or unit plan that will cover all the needs of every learner type and child. In fact America is approaching a time where the majority of classrooms are becoming more multicultural and multilingual (Paris, 2016). Chajed (2020), a teacher from New York tells us about his state’s requirement for culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy, and expands about “Funds of Knowledge.” I understand these funds to be skills that are part of a culture that is being used as a strategy for learning in another culture. The job of the teacher is to understand where the skill is from and how to build on this asset of the skill. The lens, says Chajed, is an important part of the pedagogy, being respectful and not having a “deficit lens,” where you focus on the weaknesses of a learner and instead of their assets and strengths.

Chajed’s school gave the teachers this letter with two surveys to use with the parents and students to get to know their stories and to build rapport.

The ESL teacher for grade 6 at my school is having the children study about Ruby Bridges – specifically the artist image of Ruby being escorted to school. The background is Black American children were bussed in to schools where only White children attended. This was part of the social movement to integrate Black and White cultures within America to give some sort of equality. However, as Dr. Paris (2016) points out, the integration was more assimilation on the part of the student who was black. In his paper, On Educating Culturally Sustaining Teachers, he posits to the reader, how do we prepare teachers to curricularize equity. Part of the learner profile’s role in answering that question is that is creates an opportunity to focus on assets and strengths. If you can read a story, instead of just looking at numbers, you can look at what assets and strengths a student (or any community member) can bring to the group. Standardized tests are here to stay, and they do serve a purpose. These tests also tell a story, but it’s like diving into the middle of a novel and reading only a few pages here and then another few pages there. Test results don’t tell the full story – history or potential of a person. For Dr. Paris, “a crucial element of educating culturally sustaining teachers, one that must be consistent across the field of teacher education, is how we support preparing teachers to value, to see as whole and human, the young people of color and communities of color they will work with.” I believe the last part is important – in that we all work in different communities, especially at an international school, and in every community there is diversity that needs to belong to the whole.

Strategies for Language Learners

Our cohort did a jigsaw activity to help us understand and share resources for the many strategies out there for language learners.

Module 26 Unit 3

In this activity, I created a lesson plan that focused on English Language Learners. Here it was important to add language goals in addition to content goals.

Module 26 Unit 2

This was an invaluable resource for future needs in teaching Multilinguals

Using technology in Curriculum Mapping to focus on supporting ELL

Excellent Resources from Module 26 Unit 3

These two websites really helped form my ever growing understanding of the theories of learning.

This article explains the theories from Bruner about learning:

https://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html

This article from ASCD helped build my toolkit for instructional approaches to support ELL:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109011/chapters/Introduction@_Teaching_in_Diverse,_Standards-Based_Classrooms.aspx

Module 27 Unit 1: Grammar

This activity was all about instructional approaches for teaching grammar to ELLs. My partner and I made an infographic about Conceptual Change Theory

https://www.canva.com/design/DAEc94pM1eY/gfS_T0aj3DnVpdt2p0plKw/view?utm_content=DAEc94pM1eY&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=viewer

I chose to make a lesson plan based on comparative grammar.

Caprice

Masters of Multilingual Learners, evidence of learning

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