Chapters 1

The language assessment chapter was definitely a general introduction to assessment. I almost got myself stuck on the politics of it even more so than the author did. I noticed that I was expecting more new vocabulary than the author provided also. The information about the test-criterion relationship got me wondering if it's something like Bloom's Taxonomy that we need to be utilizing. Finally, the requirements for the testers that were laid out in the conclusion got me wondering about our practices in KSD. We do not have official testers and the training that we're provided doesn't touch on looking for signs and the theory(ies) behind them. All in all, the chapter was definitely general and I can't wait to read more to see what I'll learn.

The authentic assessment chapter caused me to feel sad, mad, and even guilty (about my philosophy). It was disappointing to see that districts have trouble making effective decisions about testing for English Language learners (because of the politics). In the end, I was glad for the useful information this chapter provided. I also ended up thinking about the Maori article and figured that the characteristics of the performance assessment they had were numbers 1, 3, 4, and maybe 5. I also thought about our district's standards and the GLE's and saw that we seem to be following these guidelines. I kept thinking though that they are not very applicable to the grade I'm teaching- kindergarten, even though this chapter includes K-12, and it even mentioned including pre-K in these instruction and assessment procedures. Finally, I am actually looking forward to more information on reliability and validity.

LING612 9/16 rdgs

Teacher Magazine. April 22, 2008, by the Associated Press 2007. Teacher suspended for refusing to give state test

A 60 year old teacher refusing to administer the WASL test to his students should be expected. I feel like if I was that old and still teaching, then I’d probably do some “radical” stuff myself. I’ve been to a couple of conferences where I’ve seen some of the teachers be quite opinionated and political that I wish more teachers and the public for that matter would ban together and refuse to give the standardized tests; to stand up against the federal government for all the trouble they’re causing by requiring archaic methods of assessment for their accountability sake.
This Seattle teacher did, give a good point about offered monies to him to instead donate their money to an alternative assessment “research” organization that is assessing the state’s education system. Now, this was nice to see, but is there really such an organization?
In the end, this teacher’s demand for justice and equality, (as I believe the boycott will be), was a win-win situation as the he saw it, because he “didn’t get fired.” I wonder if he’d have taken it like Rosa Parks, etc… those people that were into civil rights long ago were able to contribute to the culminating result of their end goal. So, when will it happen in education? Will it ever?
Finally, the Seattle teacher suggests simplistically (it seems) that we have to, “work as hard as we can with these kids and their families.” I had to read this line several times and ended up having more questions from wondering if this statement is as simple as black and white or is it something else? I wish I was there to interview him myself.



Pierce, L.V. (2006). Assessment. In Ovando, C.J., Combs, M.C. & Collier, V. (Eds) Bilingual and ESL Classrooms, Boston: McGraw Hill.

The information that pertained to the politics got me so frustrated, I wished we could all boycott the lawmakers in the federal government like the 60 year old Seattle teacher who refused to give the state standardized test to his students and got suspended, not fired, for a couple of weeks. That, I believe is what needs to be planned by us as a cohort to start this kind of ban before elections this year! Especially, now that we are aware of this assessment politics, we can’t just do what we can in our own classroom. That’s not what the government wants, but they would have to accept our authentic assessments if we boycotted them right now! What do you say about that!?
Anyways, I was surprised to see the authors provide test taking skills information to us in this part of the chapter (Coping with Standardized Tests p.348. After thinking about this information, I realized that although I have access to these test taking strategies, I find that I do not utilize them neither as a student or a teacher (I wonder why?).
Finally, the suggestion to provide ten days of inservice was beautiful to see suggested, and would be beautiful if it actually could happen. Maybe, there’s a way. It was so easy to get worked up reading this selection, I have to work hard to stay positive about assessments that are conducted on our students who should be assessed the way the Maori’s are assessed (Rameka 2007).
Rameka, L. (2007). Maori Approaches to Assessment. Canadian Journal of Native Education: Edmonton, 30, 126-146.

The choice of words used to describe this, as said by the author, overaching philosophical framework was amazing. My vocabulary knowledge was refined. As I read this article, I kept on relating it to our indigenous people here in America. It was amazing to see how carefully detailed the New Zealand’s Indigenous people’s way of life and learning was explained.
The perspectives shared about the children of the Maori people was inspiring. I liked the statement that, “Children’s learning was, therefore, not left to chance (126).”
Of course the information about the government thinking they’re conceiving a conspiracy against them by asserting their rights as the people they are is typical government practice in order to have an excuse to control and subject the people. Luckily, private and public organizations are available resources that can contribute greatly to a cause.
The author (I assume) is an insider to this culture for this article to be as comprehensive about the Maori’s perspectives and lives.
I was just so amazed at the cooperation and teamwork and details that were considered for this framework. I’m going to assume that if the Alaska Native Knowledge Network and their affiliates were to write something up about their work, it might be something like this.
All in all, this was a beautiful article to read. I could imagine the beauty/ serenity in this type of learning environment. I say this, because my Kindergartners come into school and learn a different way to learn that is not natural to them and I find myself not feeling comfortable with molding them to do so- knowing that it is not natural for then to sit and write and listen for many hours a day when all these years they’ve been learning through natural situations that do occur spontaneously. My critical pedagogy is being tested here. I want to move to New Zealand and work in this school that has this awesome authentic assessment information and access.

Triadic scaffolds

Meskill, C. (2005). Triadic scaffolds: Tools for teaching English language learners with computers. Language Learning & Technology, 9, 46-59.

The computer, teacher and a pair of students make the triadic in triadic scaffolds. The teacher supports the computer software's language through her conversations with the beginning ELL students. The "computer-supported classroom discourse" through the use of instructional conversation with the children provide the students with models of what's needed for participation in school.
The scaffolds are the words the teacher uses as models for school participation. The teacher provides scaffolds for the ELLs during their one period a day intensive English class during their computer time through modeling of the different types of language used in the mainstream classroom (and from the computer program). The students were said to be using the language they hear from the teacher and computer activities they used within a couple of days.

I could see how this can be applied to my kindergarten classroom by modeling the language commands during their time on the computer and making sure that they understand them, instead of just assuming that they should already know. Providing this scaffold through modeling the English language's forms and functions of school ("words") language in context/ during the situation, while their attention is high was a good point to mention and take note of.

Abdullah's Blogging

Bloch, J. (2007). Abdulah’s blogging: A generation 1.5 student enters the blogosphere.
Language Learning & Technology, 11, 128-141.

The integrated approach toward academic writing through the use of Blogging about the controversial issue of plagiarism for a group of immigrant second language learners enrolled in a college composition course was analyzed. For this to happen, four blog use goals were established. Although the students were using the expressive style of writing, the author’s intended to use that as a stepping stone toward applying that to their academic writing. The student Abdulah found his voice, became an expert and most likely was able to transfer that to his academic writing assignment about plagiarism. This format and its content could be seen as critical literacy The issue of plagiarism was meaningful and relevant because the university they were attending was considering solutions to dealing with this problem as the same time. The students wrote onto a class blog by first introducing themselves (the Western way of communicating). The instructors didn’t expect the students to focus on correct grammar. Instead, they wanted the students to write freely, which happened. The author/ teacher felt that using this mode of writing would help the students to develop a critical perspective and evaluation on a current events topic. I liked that on page 136 the author said that the students’ own language was valued and they were considered experts as their background on this issue was increased, thus allowing them to cite their classmates’ text in their academic writing assignment. The students’ way with words on the blog was analyzed in a way that I felt was useful to me as an elementary teacher. I feel that this article can be beneficial to teachers of any grade working with writing, critical thinking, and/or technology.

Rethinking Schools articles

McFarlane, S. H. (2008). The laptops are coming! The laptops are coming! What am I
learning from my school’s infatuation with computers. Rethinking Schools, 22, 22-26.

This regular classroom teacher shares her mostly stressful experiences with laptops for each student in her school (the new trend in schools nowadays). Her experiences sound like ours in our school district. The positives are there but not without their complications and side effects, as we have seen in our district. The issue of power seemed to be bothering her (and me) a lot. I liked that this teacher was concerned about justice, equality, analytical/critical thinking, values on relationships that teachers and students should be concerned about also. The questions she provided as” notes for next time” shows her critical pedagogy, which I would not mind sharing with my co-workers with her permission of course. The information she shared was like she was talking about our students. So this was good to see that we were not the only ones going through this dilemma. She’s keeping it real, just the way I like it. No pretentiousness here. Is she a jewel in a haystack?

Garcia, A. (2008). Rethinking myspace Using social networking tools to connect with
students. Rethinking Schools, 22, 27-29.

Garcia’s diary like format touched on some serious issues involving MySpace in education. The one important fact is that this a way to extend class outside of the classroom. Another fact that I’ve found to be repeating itself concerning the web is the issue of power/justice/equity. It can be seen that Garcia believes in critical thinking and pedagogy, which can be seen in his “hope to sway students to use MySpace to spread messages and bulletins to fellow classmates- to take “ownership” of the mass media and to use MySpace to create a difference in the school atmosphere (p.29).”
Obviously the Internet can be a powerful tool for intermediate, middle, and high school teachers who have a critical pedagogy and believe in critical thinking.
Finally, I feel that I understand this program clearer (especially since I still haven’t created a MySpace for myself yet, because of the old excuse of paranoia of identity theft and the real excuse of lack of time- for now.).

LING611 Thorne reading

Thorne, S.L. (2006) New technologies and Additional Language Learning. CALPER Working paper No. 7. The Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research. The Pennsylvania State University. pp1-26.

This review essay, as the author Thorne calls it, seemed more like a computer techie’s literature review of the research on the Internet’s impact(s) on communication. Three topics of Internet communication technologies most related to the educational setting that Thorne chose to focus on were: chat, cross-cultural communication in second language education, and additional language learning for participation. The issue of equity as a factor in the incorporation of digital technology in the classroom was strongly expressed to be a serious issue that the education system cannot afford to ignore, especially because the borders being crossed today from the Internet should indicate to the schools the importance of utilizing the it in a meaningful way for language learners.
After reading this paper, the strongest point I got out of it was the issue of equity. Now that I’ve read about equity issues caused by the Internet, I can see this problem in our school district, which has laptops for jr. high and high school students, to use. This equity issue arises when it comes to their eligibility for Internet privileges. Even in my class, I’ve used the computers as an incentive for staying on task and at times as a reward for good student behavior. I did eventually realize of who was benefiting and who wasn’t from this system within my classroom, but now imagine the guilt trip I’ve been having about the ramifications! I’m sure the students are aware of this issue. I guess this is where I’d have to have a class discussion about this issue to find an equitable solution, I hope. This feels like the first and least I could do until other solutions are found, which I noticed weren’t specifically suggested in this article.

LING695 Prompt 3 responses

Prompt #3 pp. 84-117; 136-151

1. The understandings that I gathered about the content and reviews in these sections have to do with truth, reality, and resilience. When I was young, I was told by my aunt that I was resilient. She explained what it meant, and I embraced it as a mode of survival through my teens and twenties when I was away from home going to school. I see this concept of resiliency in these reviews and poems despite the anger or pain they express. The reviewers’ and poets’ ability to tell the truth is a reality that all readers of indigenous stories and poems need to acknowledge, accept and amend and not just be a passive reader. That’s the message I’m getting from them and am thankful for it.

2.The genre, elements of literature and forms and features have been addressed in each review at one time or another. I noticed that the photographs, background or history, voice, and word choices were carefully analyzed in each review. Additionally, the publisher’s or editor’s influence in the Native author’s text was researched and included, which I thought was very smart of the reviewer to do and share.

3. These reviews provide me with a framework and focus that I want to apply in my own research as well as in my classroom. I’d like to have my kindergartners analyze the photographs, background or history, voice, and word choice of books written about their culture and hopefully of other cultures for accuracy and truthfulness.

4. The poem that I couldn’t get over was on page 85, She’s a Hawk, by Mary TallMountain not only because of the humor but also because of its reality. It made me remember an elder in our village who would be like Tatiana. This poem showed that less is more/ actions speak louder than words. It’s typical for an outsider or even young people today who don’t know how to listen to come in and think s/he knows it all, whereas it’s useless to argue, so you let your actions speak and maybe they’ll finally hear you. I’d like to try writing a poem or two describing people’s actions and reactions, using them to speak for themselves as the author, Mary TallMountain did. When I first read this poem, I wasn’t sure what gisakk meant, although I imagined an indigenous person being frustrated with someone who doesn’t know how to listen (most likely an outsider, I thought). Then I got to the end and saw that gisakk meant white man and I went into a giggling fit even more (than before I even knew what gisakk meant). Humor is good medicine, and in this case an effective method of writing which in turn can be used as a teaching tool.