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EN 4-528 Spring 2011

Field Observation Report

This semester I spent 2 hours observing a class of 4 students in a pull-out ESOL class at North Dorchester high school. These students are in varying grades from 10th to 12th grade. They are also at varying levels as far as their fluency is concerned. One student has only been in the United States for 6 months and is at a low-beginner level. Another student has been at this school and taking ESOL for 2 years but yet is still at the low-beginner level (the ESOL teacher and I have discussed possible learning disabilities). Then there are two other students that have been talking ESOL for three and four years and they are definatley classified as high-intermediate. So, this class is very small but the abilities are varying which is always a challenge when trying to differentiate.

Every Friday the teacher gives the students a spelling test. The students are completely prepared and know what to expect. As far as face validity was concerned the teacher accomplished this goal without a doubt. The teacher gives the students 10 new words every Monday that the students copy down. The teacher also gives them sentences with the words that they copy down along with a definition. Their job is to learn what the words mean, be able to spell them and use them in their own sentence. This is homework for them. The teacher allows the student to write the sentences and meanings in L1 when the student is new. I think that this is important because as we have been learning from Brown and Tinajero, we need to embrace L1 and allow students to use L1 more often. So, on this day I stayed and watched the teacher administer the test. I really appreciated the fact that the student knew what to expect and there were no surprises. I also enjoyed the way the teacher differentiated the test for all learners. She repeated the words twice for the students but pronounced them several times for anyone that needed it and pronounced them the way that they were phonetically spelled at times. She also employed the context-embedded technique of reading her sentences to the class so that they could tap their prior knowledge based on the sentences she gave them in the beginning. I am not sure about authenticity as much though because we don’t pronounce every word phonetically that way in English. She allowed the students to verbalize the words to themselves if they needed to before they began writing. I feel that this is another great way to incorporate listening, speaking reading and writing, as the students really need to employ all of them to internalize the words.

The teacher gave back the spelling tests. Beneficial wash back was achieved as the teacher was able to spend one-on one time with every student. Brown reminds us that this type of formative assessment provides necessary wash back. As far as grading goes the teacher took off one point for grammatical errors. I think that this makes sense but I thought it would be more valid of a score if the teacher actually counted the words the student used and then deducted 1 point for each grammatical error. My question to the teacher was about global errors. I asked what she did when she could not understand the sentence or part of it. She said she took points off for each global error. I did not suggest it but thought maybe a tiny rubric or simple checklist like Tinajero shows in chapter one for each sentence could be used. By providing this, the students know exactly what to do to improve next time they write sentences. For example not only should she take off for each grammatical error but award each sentence 1-5 points based on "not understandable " to "perfect" or something to that effect.

In addition to this visit the teacher practiced speaking in order to prepare the students for the standardized LAS test that they must pass in order to test out of their ESOL classes. The teacher read a prompt like: “Tell your teacher that you need more time to finish the warm-up”. The teacher repeated it twice for the intermediate levels but she had to repeat about 5 times for the lower levels. I was able to observe several reasons that Brown cites for these issues with listening and speaking exercises. First of all the teacher tried to help with clustering by reading vital information with pauses and it seemed to help eventually. She was careful to avoid slang or as Brown calls it “colloquial language”. She was able to interact naturally and flow “from listening to speaking to listening” (brown, 122) I enjoyed this practice because it was very authentic and mimicked “real-world” and open-ended and because the students really do need to be prepared for these standardized tests. I spoke to the teacher about this test and she seemed very stressed and pressured because she feels that if they don’t pass it would be a direct reflection on her. Also, as Brown writes, these tests are not fair because standardized tests assume that the tests “correctly assess all learners equally well” (p. 68) I really enjoyed and would not change a thing about the LAS preparation assessment because it was conducted naturally, without threat and authenticity was achieved while informal assessment was conducted throughout. I would definitely assess through listening and speaking prompts often to ensure oral practice but to prepare the students for the standardized test.

Overall I really learned and observed many things that I will definitely use. The spelling test incorporated many skills and built on all of the work the students had been learning in the week. The LAS preparation assessment was informal but useful as the standardized is coming up and the students need to prepare.