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are a couple references at the library that I am going to try and check out this week but some of them seem kind of out of date.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.

Chapter 12 Grading and Student Evaluation

"Your school may have done away with winners & losers, but life has not.  In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they will give you as many chances as you want to get the right answer.  That does not bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life."  -Bill Gates

I chose this quote today because it relates to the portion of the chapter about grade inflation and how grades can be rendered meaningless if they reflect student effort, behavior, improvement and participation above actual achievement.  

This week's topic of grading and student evaluation was very interesting to me because it forced me to take a hard look at grading.  In teaching preparation courses this is not a topic that is reviewed in-depth and I think that many teachers are left confused about the proper way to evaluate students.  On one hand teachers are told to "focus on the whole child" and schools put a great deal of pressure on students to see that students pass rather than fail.  Too many students produce average work, but receive "A"s.  At Okkodo, where I have been interning this semester, one of the concerns of the accreditation team and a problem that the school administrators and teacher-leaders are tackling, is exactly that:  What are the meaning of grades?  Do they actually reflect student learning and achievement?  How is it possible that we have honors students who are scoring so far below average on the SAT-10?  There is a disconnect and they are working to find answers.  

On the other hand, institutional and societal expectations are such that being a tough grader can cause a teacher trouble: pressure from the principal, pressure from parents, and an understanding that if all schools & teachers are inflating grades and you are not, you are putting students at a competitive disadvantage.  I consider my classes challenging and I am not afraid to give students the grades they earn even if they may be failing grades - or Bs to students who claim that they "always get As".  Most of the time the results resemble a bell curve, but occasionally I will have a class that is very top-heavy or very bottom-heavy.  I do not give extra credit- except a few bonus points here and there for extra effort on projects- and I have very high expectations for my students.  The keys to being a tough teacher without being a hated teacher, I believe, are support and communication.  I give my students review sessions.  I give them my home email address.  If the entire class does poorly on a test, I will re-teach and re-test on the material.  I am available during lunch and try to make myself available after school.  For the most part, my students seem to rise to the challenge of high expectations, and surprise themselves with what they can learn.  I am still figuring out how best to motivate those who give up easily and quit early on. I feel that is an area I could improve upon.  

Grading fairly is a challenge that will be around for a long time.  Culturally, our society needs to change its attitude about educational entitlement and the belief that all students are equally brilliant.  Hard work is an enormous factor in how much a student will learn and achieve in a course.  Hard work, however, is not the same as achievement.  It helps achievement, but achievement must be assessed on its own merits.  Teachers need to be better educated on how to do that well.  

Chapter 12- Grading and Student Evaluation

I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades.

Duffy Daugherty

This week we discussed about grading and student evaluation. I enjoyed reading the first part of the chapter that explained how ironic it was to spend long hours reading, listening to lectures, notetaking, writing paper, and attending classes are invariable reduced to one of the five letters of the alphabet- A, B, C, D, and F. The first part of the chapter also mentions about different grading systems in schools and institution and especially among teachers. One institution will be generous with A's and others are quite stingy with A's so B's are the next highest.

The chapter also mentions that are educational lives are greatly governed by the grades that are greatly determined by tests reasons why I chose the quote above. A student can be the most brightest and most intelligent student. However, when it comes to tests, the student struggles taking the assessments, they just don't care, or they move to fast and make careless mistakes which affects their test grade. I know a student who is extremely smart in math and can calculate problems quickly, however, on his math tests he scored below an A due to careless mistakes and not wanting to double check work.

The chapter also explains about alternatives to letter grading. I am new to the school system, but according to the book teachers are able to determine what the letter means and how much percentage is labeled in that letter group such as 90-100 is A. Alternative grading may be useful for many of the different types of learners, especially ELLs. The alternative grading may take some time, but when it all comes down we teachers always give a letter grade at the end.

Thirteenth Week Reflection

I was told that I had to give grades to the students, which I wasn't particularly interested in doing.
Merce Cunningham

This week we learned about grading and student evaluations. The first part of the chapter talked about how we can come up with a letter grade system. Most American schools have the standard A-F system, but often these letter grades are based on various percentiles. The teachers are the ones who decide if an A is a 90-100, a 94-100, etc. It was pointed out in the chapter that often teachers working at the same school often do not use the same grading system. I think that it is important for teachers at the same institution to be on the same page when it comes to grading. This will help the students better understand what constitutes an A, B, etc.

The second part of the chapter talked about different alternatives to letter grades. This is why I chose the above quote. Though most teachers can give various other types of feedback to students, in the end we still have to assign letter grades to all of our students. A lot of teachers find it hard to assign grades to ELLs and SPED students. A lot of the regular teachers just do not find it fair to assign an A to a student who is not performing at grade level even though the student is trying hard and doing the best he or she can with limited English or some sort of a disability. When dealing with ELLs and SPED students, I often tend to grade based more on effort and motivation than on the correct answers.

There are cultural issues also involved in assigning letter grades. A lot of cultures do not see the value of a letter grade. It is also hard for a student to care about their grades if their parents do not even care. We only had three of our sheltered students' parents show up during our last parent-teacher conference. Transportation and work issues can be part of the reasons why so few parents showed up. One year when I was teaching, one of the parents wanted to see me because I mildly scolded her daughter but she did not care to see me about the fact that her daughter was failing my class every quarter. There are also some ELLs and SPED students who do not put forth any effort but believe that they should pass just because of their special population status.

"One forgets words as one forgets names.  One's vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die."         -Evelyn Waugh


This week we read about grammar and vocabulary assessment.  This quote, while probably meant for native speakers, applies well to the second language classroom.  Just providing students with terms and definitions or grammatical structures and not giving them time to be practiced and absorbed is like introducing someone to thirty people all at once.  A couple of names will stick with the person, but mostly the faces will blur and the names will all run together.  People's names don't matter to a person until those people matter.  The same is true for words.  A teacher has to help the words and structures matter so that they can be remembered.  The "fertilizing" mentioned in the quote can be interpreted to mean practice and formative assessment. 


English is a particularly challenging language for several reasons.  Among these is the greed of the language.  English is constantly stealing and borrowing vocabulary terms and phrases from other languages.  This makes the language rich and interesting, but also complex and confusing- especially for the second language student.  Grammar and vocabulary assessment, also called form-focused assessment is necessary particularly in the beginning of language learning- or at the introduction of specific concepts in language.  Grammar and vocabulary are central to effective communication, but teachers of language must not forget that they are a means not an ends.  Communication and understanding are the goals.  We want students to be able to read, write, listen, and speak effectively.  Proper grammar and a wide vocabulary will help, but there is much more to language than memorizing words and structures.