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Principle: How teachers react to students’ responses can expand or limit students' learning opportunities.
Principle: How teachers react to students’ responses can expand or limit students' learning opportunities.
In 2020, Asian students accounted for 71% of the student population at Shuang Wen School, followed by Hispanic students at 11% (NYCDOE, 2020). Apparently, the majority of the students come from immigrant families. Gándara and Rumberger (2009) pointed out the needs of immigrant students. Since English is not the first language of many of them, immigrant students often need additional instructional time in academic English, explicit instruction in American culture, and emotional and social support (p. 755). Thus, even though their learning opportunity seems equal to that of local American students, learning at school can be a very different experience for them.
Let's take a look at the learning opportunities in an ELA class at Shuang Wen School. There were three things that surprised me the most. First, the classroom was a specialized room for ELA. It was different from Taiwan because we usually stayed in the same classroom all the time. It was the teachers who went into different classrooms to teach. However, since it is the students who move around to different classrooms, each teacher can decorate their own classrooms to make them suitable for their classes. For example, in this ELA classroom, there were English comics and posters on the bulletin board, there were English fictions for all ages of students in the bookshelves, and there were laptops that students could use when they did assignments online. In addition, outside the classroom were the student samples from different grade levels. The teacher would give comments on each of them, and students could take a look when they walked down the hallway. The teacher also invited me to give them some comments so that they can get opinions from someone other than the teacher.
"All children come to school as thinkers and learners."
--Nieto, 2010
Second, the use of technology in class was simple yet effective. The TV screen in the classroom was connected to the teacher’s laptop, so he frequently displayed online resources, videos, or documents shared in his google classroom. When he asked for students’ answers, he would type them directly on the screen so that everyone could see. For instance, when the teacher asked for examples of a relative clause, a student said, “Dr. Lennington, who gives us boring assignment, is our teacher.” Such an impolite statement made him hesitate before typing it down, but he responded with humor and typed “Dr. Lennington, who is forced to give us boring assignment, is our teacher,” which made the students laugh. In fact, it was faster to type than to write on the board, and he could copy and paste to save time. In addition, there was a desk in the from the classroom. If a student wanted to go to the restroom, he/she had to come to the desk and sign his/her name, record the time of exiting the classroom, and sign again when returning. This is a common classroom management technique used here at Shuang Wen School.
The bulletin board serves as an extensive space for learning.
I made some comments on a student's essay.
Third, to include students with special needs and students whose first language is not English (most of them speak Chinese as their first language), the school places one special education teacher and one ESL teacher in an ELA class. Basically, these two additional teachers facilitate every student in learning in class, not limiting to those with special needs. When they see someone not catching up, they approach the student and explain what to do. Sometimes when students are not paying attention, they will also help maintain the order of the classroom. Students are used to having three teachers in the classroom at the same time, and it does help them feel more included when they have difficulties. What all the three teachers had in common was that they were willing to give compliments to those who did well in the tasks or provided good answers. This encouraged student participation to some extent. While some students were really engaged in answering the questions, others stayed quiet all the time. It was hard to tell whether they were learning well or not. When students worked on the worksheet, I found that most of them just put down shallow answers that could not represent full understanding of the text. This phenomenon has improved over time. In the latter half of the semester, more and more students were able to contribute more in-depth answers orally when they responded to the teacher's questions.
Overall, this ELA class has offered many learning opportunities to the students. In class, they can learn from three different teachers and their classmates during group discussion. Their responses to the teachers are taken care of even if their answers are not good enough. Aside from the course itself, they can learn from classroom decoration, student samples on the bulletin board, as well as the feedback given by their peers. Unfortunately, there is one flaw that may hinder students' learning opportunity. It is that the students are bilingual, but the teachers are not. Therefore, students can only speak English in this class, which sacrifices their Chinese as "assets" or "resources" for learning.
Students in the ELA class.
Observation Prompts
Observation Prompts
Notes
Notes
The Classroom Layout
From this classroom layout we can observe three features:
There is plenty of space for the teacher to post resources on the bulletin boards.
Laptops are located next to the teacher's desk, so the teacher can have better control of them.
The whiteboard and the TV work together as "screens" to display content.
References
References
Gándara, P., & Rumberger, R. W. (2009). Immigration, language, and education: How does language policy structure opportunity? Teachers College Record, 111(3), 750-782.
Nieto, S. (2010). Language, Culture, and Teaching: Critical Perspectives (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
NYC Department of Education (DOE). (2021). P.S. 184m Shuang Wen (01M184). 2019-20 School Quality Snapshot. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://tools.nycenet.edu/snapshot/2020/01M184/EMS/
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