Sixteenth Week Reflection

Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts. Henri Frederic Amiel

Today we had our last class. It was nice to see everyone once again. We got to hear everyone talk about their Literature Reviews. Everyone had really interesting topics. It would be nice to have the chance to read some of the ones that are still in the works once they are completed. After we talked about our Literature Reviews, everyone stood up and said some nice parting words. We had a little party afterwards. The food was really good. Thanks to everyone for bringing something. I hope I get to see my classmates and professor again in future endeavors. I chose the above quote because I am thankful that we all completed the semester together, everyone was really nice to each other, and everyone had good things to say about each other.

May 11, 2012

A friend should be one in whose understanding and virtue we can equally confide, and whose opinion we can value at once for its justness and its sincerity.
Robert Hall

Today was our last class meeting.  We assessed each others oral presentation on our literature review and everyone did really well. We also went around the class and everyone had a chance to say their final goodbyes.  Again, I will like to thank everyone for the wonderful semester and learning experience.  I will surely take my new knowledge and apply what I learned to my teaching abilities.

The quote above describes the new friends I made throughout this semester and thank you again for your positive comments and at the same time taking the time to read and listen to my experiences despite being a new teacher.  Throughout this course, we confided in one another with our personal experiences and thoughts and respected and valued each other's opinions.

Thank you again and I hope you all enjoy your summer! Oh, and thank you for the wonderful food and drinks! It was delicious!

Fifteenth Week Reflection

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” Lao Tzu

This week in class we talked a little bit more about our Literature Review. We also discussed our LiveText portfolio. The majority of the class time was spent on the Positive Experience Approach (PEA) activity. In this activity everyone was supposed to write a couple of nice things about all of the other members of the class. After this, we cut them into strips and turned them in. The strips were then distributed to each member of the class. Once we received all of our strips, we then stood up and read aloud all of the nice things that our classmates said about us. It was nice to find out what our classmates had to say positive about us.  I think that the PEA activity can be used at the beginning and end of a course. It will help the students to get to know each other better and find out what nice things they have to say about each other. I chose the above quote because it relates to being kind and making other people feel better. We have one more week to go. I am looking to meeting again nice week and having our class party.

April 30-May 4 Reflection

"In learning to know other things, and other minds, we become more intimately acquainted with ourselves, and are to ourselves better worth knowing."

- Philip Gilbert Hamilton

        Today in class we met face to face and it was great seeing my classmates once again after a long month of ongoing learning at our own homes. I chose the quote above because of the interesting and engaging activity we did in class today called PEA (Positive Experience Approach).  The whole concept of PEA was to write two positive things about our classmates.  We then cut the names along with the two positive characteristic into strips and the strips were distributed to each of us.  We then had the opportunity to read what each other had to say about ourselves. I really enjoyed this activity, for one I felt very good about myself based on what my classmates had to say about me.  It was a great picker-uper.  I also enjoyed hearing and learning about my classmates even more.  This PEA activity was very simple, but meaningful and a great way to assess our students.  Like we discussed in class, PEA is an activity that can be done at the beginning of the year to see what the students thought about one another on the first day.  The students can then keep these strips and at the end of the year compare what their classmates had to say about them on the first day to what they had to say  after getting to know one another at the end of the year.
       PEA is also a great way to assess collaboration among group members.  Each group member would say something positive about what each group member did to help make  the project a success.  PEA is also a fun activity to help assess adjective usage, nouns, and sentence structure.  Overall, PEA is one activity I plan to do next year with my students.
      Other than the PEA activity, we also discussed our livetext portfolio and the one major artifact we need to upload which is our Literature review.
       Overall, today was a very productive and positive day.  It was great seeing my wonderful classmates and professor once again.  See you all on Friday!

Fourteenth Week Reflection

Loafing is the most productive part of a writer's life. ~James Norman Hall 

So we are close to the end of the semester. We finished our textbook and all of our Chapter Papers. I have learned a good deal so far from this class. Now the only few assignments left are to complete our Final Reflection, finish our Literature Review, and upload our artifacts to LiveText. I am not concerned with the Final Reflection or the LiveText Portfolio. I am assuming that our Final Reflection will be kind of like our Midterm Reflection. I am more worried about the Literature Review. At least it seems like I am not the only one in this boat. I could not find a lot of information on the original topic that I chose which was the Test of Spoken English (TSE) Test. So I ended up changing my topic to Cloze Tests. I have found enough articles regarding Cloze Tests in general, but a lot of them do not really relate to how they are used with ELLs. Besides the use of the articles that I do have, I guess I will have to use some internet sources to tie this information all together. There are a couple references at the library that I am going to try and check out this week but some of them seem kind of out of date.

I chose the above quote because it seems that I always end up procrastinating when it comes to writing papers. I guess it is just not my favorite thing to do. I have written Literature Reviews before and I usually do well on most of my papers. It is just get started that is the hard part. It is also hard when you cannot find a lot of information on your topic that is relevant to the subject matter you are talking about. Looking at the rubric it just says that it has to be five pages and follow APA format. I am just wondering how many references we need and how current they need to be.

April 23-April 27 Reflection

"Be thankful for each new challenge, because it will build your strength and character." Author Unknown


This week we closed off our final chapter of our book.  I am actually amazed because this is the first book I have ever finished reading throughout my college years. Through the months, we have discussed and read about assessments, creating and evaluating assessments, the importance of assessments, good assessment practice, and grading and evaluations. After submitting our final reaction paper, now that is left is the Livetext portfolio, final reflection, and literature review.  I would have to say the literature review will be one of my greatest challenges.  For one, I forgot how to write a literature review.  Secondly, I don't remember if I ever wrote a literature review. Third, I am still torn between what topic I would like to write about and right now I am looking at ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI).  Another topic I am very interested in is the Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE).  Please help me. What do you think?  I chose the quote above because I know the literature review is going to be one of my most challenging assignments, but I will work hard take on the challenge because I know it will help me in the long run and strengthen my research and writing skills.  I can do this!

Week of April 27th reflection

“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”   -Zora Neale Hurston


This week we have wrapped up our book and written our last reaction paper.  We have spent a lot of time reading and discussing assessments, their effectiveness and good assessment practice.  Now what is left is our literature review, final self-reflection and our Live Text portfolios.  For me, the literature review is causing me the most trouble.  I have written a literature review before in my research courses, but this one has been really challenging.  I think that is because I have had a hard time pinning down a good topic.  So far I feel like I am as the quote says "poking and prying" without "purpose".  I wanted to research the Versant/ Phonepass because I was interested in the book's mention of its accuracy despite being a computer-scored speaking test.  Unfortunately, I was only able to find a few articles that even mentioned it and most simply used the test as their assessment of choice for very different research.  Now I have expanded my research to include other speaking assessments, but I am having difficulty determining what I am looking for.  I am having a hard time finding resources that refer to the effectiveness of assessments without discussing general standardized tests used or that do not just reference the test as a tool used in other research.  I am making some progress, but I am not as far along as I would like to be and I am starting to get worried.  I know I will finish it, but so far it has me stressed.  I am considering changing my topic once again to the effectiveness of language placement tests.  That may yield more reliable results.   No matter what, I know that I have to make this happen.  And I will.