Yasmin's+Insights

Well, I was actually able to listen to the audio cast of Diane August. I don't remember how I got to it, but it was interesting to listen to.

While listening to Diane August, I found that the panel has the same notions of billingual education that I have heard in my 11 years of teaching. I didn't learn anything that I had not already heard before. Although I did find that when I followed along with the power point presentation, it made what Diane was saying alot more meaningful.

The purpose of the National Literacy Panel was to identify, assess, and synthesize research on th education of language-minority children and youth with respect to their attainment of literacy, and to produce a comprehensive report evaluating and synthesizing the literature.

Now that I have given you all the purpose let me tell you about the interesting information that I found in the audio cast. First she mentions that their are the same amount of in EO's as in ELL's that are low in reading. She also says that with intervention the EO's progress quicker than the ELL's. I disagree with the a comment that she made about how socieoeconomics played a role in the literacy of ELL's. I have had students where each of their parents worked two jobs and were pretty much "latch key kids" and they were they were proficient readers in English. In my experience I believe that it is the parents and how much importance they put on becoming literate in the second language that determines whether the children will become proficient, not including and learning disabilities.

It has long been known that first language literacy, is the gateway to second language literacy. I can remember listening to primary teachers argue about bilingual education. The bilingual teachers argued for it and the English Only teachers argued against it. In my experience as an ELL student, I did find that being literate in my native language made it far easier to learn to read English. I was taught to read Spanish at a young age by family members before I went to school. Although I was raised in the U.S., in the house Spanish was only spoken. Learning to read English was not to difficult. The consonant sounds are pretty much the same, the differences were the blends and vowel sounds. Diane August mentions the easy transition to the second language once the student is literate in own language. She mentions that if the children have good phonological awareness in their 1st language that their is no need for phonological awareness in English. My only problem with bilingual education is the lack of training for the teachers who teach it. If you speak Spanish, you are thrown in a class without a clue of how to teach your class.

Diane August spoke about four the aspects of being a proficient reader: fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and writing. One of the firsts insights she makes is that ELD is good for not only ELL's, but also EO's. I found that many of the strategies she used in the research are those that I use in my class and other teachers use also. For example the use of graphic organizers, preteaching of vocabulary in context, asking questions of different levels for student comprehension, teaching writing in content, modeled writing, allowing for partner response, and many others. One that I found particularly interesting is that when ELL students are to peer conference, that the teacher should choose the partner instead of self selection by student. Teacher should make sure the partner is English proficient. I highly recommend that you all listen to the audio cast. She gives many insights on how not only to instruct ELL's in in reading and writing, but it is also beneficial for EO students.

Catherine Snow in the last chapter of the panel report give a conclusion to the on the research. She give the limitations of the research and explains how more research is still highly needed in the area of language minority children. One insight that she mentions is the lack of useful assessments used with ELL's. We all know well the CELDT. As I have learned more about this assessment in the last semester, I found just as Snow that their is really no assessment that is reliable or valid for that matter and that ELL's are not given the proper attention that is needed for them to succeed in their schooling career.

August and Snow both mention the lack of research in the area of Language-Minority children and that even in their own search for outside research they were only able use about 20 out of the 96 they had. Subject: Reflection- Yasmin Ruiz Reply Quote Set Flag