EDSS 521 Blog Post 5

This semester, I have been surprised by the literacy levels of my students. I am surprised by the drastic levels of my student’s literacy skills. Even though I teach Spanish and my students read in Spanish, on some assignments they are supposed to translate their readings into English and I notice some use academic English to translate and others just describe what they are trying to translate.

 September 30, 2013

Dear Diary,

My literacy rich classroom looks like they need help understanding the concept of the readings. This is a Spanish II class and they are starting to do advanced reading, which they were not used to doing the previously year in their lower level Spanish class. My students are engaged in reading small stories about the subjects they already know and we go over them as a classroom to make sure everyone is on the same level of understanding.

December 15, 2015

Dear Diary,

My literacy rich classroom looks like they understand the readings well enough, even though the readings are in Spanish, my students are following the information well. My students are engaged in readings about history especially about the culture of the target language. They are reading small stories about Latin American customs and traditions and comparing them to the ones we have her in the United States.

May 30, 2014

Dear Diary,

It is the end of the school year and my literacy rich classroom is on top of their readings. Starting the year with short readings and moving on with translations my students can handle longer readings, plus translation. My students are still learning about Hispanic countries and comparing what they learn in their readings with what they already know about their own country, with this my students pair up with a peer and share their thoughts.  As a class we have group discussions about the readings and my students are capable of independently sharing their thoughts and ideas of readings done in the classroom and readings done outside the classroom. I believe my students are ready for Spanish III, where the readings are much more advanced. 

Sociocultural Aspects of Schooling for ELs

At the high school I am at they have a program called the Best Buddy program where a mainstream student spends time and helps out a special education student. For my Social Justice & Equity Action Plan I want to bring this same awareness for EL students at the high school by creating a program where an EL student can be paired up with a mainstream student and through this pair up each will learn about themselves and their cultures. The mainstream student will get more of an insight of what an ELD student goes through and ELD students can comfortably socially engage in regular settings. 

EDSS 521 Post 2

Due to the decreased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and a not fully developed prefrontal cortex, adolescent are not able to perceive what other people see making them see life from a different perspective. As a teacher I will design my lesson plans to make sure my students direct their energy into learning the material and not wasting it. I will incorporate more activities in my lessons to keep my students engaged and help them finish developing their decision making processes by using different mental approaches to any situation. 

i+1 Assessment

I believe an effective SDAIE strategy to use in a classroom is the "think, pair, share" strategy. Especially with EDL students in a class, it makes it easier for them to grasp the information. I have seen this method in the many classrooms I have observed and in my own classes as well and I have noticed that when given students the opportunity to discuss content with another student the material is easier to understand.

SDAIE Classroom Activity

My Co-teacher and I did an activity with our Spanish II students that involved walking around the classroom and getting to know one another. The activity is called "¿Quien en la clase...?"- "Who in the class...?" The activity involved a sheet of paper that had various questions in it, for example: who in the class has a dog? who in the class has a name that starts with the letter L? who in the class has two brothers? and students were supposed to walk around the classroom and find a classmate that could answer this question for them and write their name next to the question, all in Spanish. This was a great activity because students got a chance to learn a little about their peers, as well as their names and they got to interact with each other practicing the language they are learning. 

Student Survey

I made a literacy survey for my Spanish students asking them various questions about how they like to read, if they like to read and what they like to read. My questions were pretty simple and the way to answer was even simpler. I added three faces, a happy face, an impartial face and a sad face, my students were to circle the face that reflected how they felt about reading.

The answers i received from my students were very interesting, I asked them how they felt about reading on their free time and most of them answered by circling the happy face and circled the sad face when asked how they felt about reading in class or about reading from the class workbook. I have always thought that reading from pure enjoyment is the best reading.

Injustice

The high school I am student teaching at offers no lockers for students and it pains me seeing many of them hauling their heavy books on their backs across campus. Some of the students are too tiny for this kind of back strain and unfortunately the school does not offer the possibility of leaving their text books in class or even building lockers for students to use and store their heavy books. 

My Name is....

My name is Jo Anna Elizabeth George Landavazo. I have three given names, to my mother I am Anna, to my father I am Jo, but when they both want my attention immediately, it is always “Jo Anna Elizabeth!!”  (Emphasis on the exclamation marks) To all others I am simply Jo Anna/ JoAnna.

I was born in Texas and the name Jo for a girl is very common, so my father wanted my name to be Jo, but my last name is George so naturally I would be known as Jo George. My mother on the other hand did not approve that my name should sound like a boy’s so she added the Anna, as a second name, still respecting my father’s choice of naming me Jo. But I guess this wasn’t enough for both of them since they decided to give me a third name, Elizabeth, my paternal grandmother’s name.

I have looked up the origin of my name in various cases, and the way I do it is, I just look up Joanna, which means God is gracious. Elizabeth means Consecrated to God.

I really like my name, I like having options to how I can be called. Many of my friends call me Jo, as does my father and his side of the family. Some family members from my mother’s side call me Elizabeth, just because they like the name and others call me Juana, because of the “J” sound in Spanish. My mother simply calls me Anna most of the time, and occasionally JoAnna. I really like either name and I have always liked the name Elizabeth. I have noticed it is a very common middle name and it beautifully complements many female first names.

Some people do make comments about my name only when they learn that legally my first name is Jo, because they automatically assume it is just Joanna. Then I proceed to explain, briefly telling them this story.