SPSE 6712 #4-Reflecting on Case Study and Ethnographic Narrative

The class I observed for the case study was rather small, and the students were doing a typical reading lesson. The student I chose to observe was the same student that I talked to for the Ethnographic Narrative. I always enjoy watching class and how the students interact with each other and the teacher. Even though the lesson was to cover everyday work the teacher did an excellent job utilizing the time to thoroughly talk about reading, vocabulary, comprehension, types of words and how to plot a story. I like watching her because I can see how she interacts with the students and how sensitive and respectful she is to the students. Other students in the team even are comfortable to come in to her room and ask for materials they need.

Case study is important because you can observe a student without the student being aware and possibly acting different because of that. Teachers are always observing their students, but it is hard to observe a particular student all the time without being noticed. I was able to observe the class and one student without him noticing. I think case studies will be very useful if I have a student that I am having problems with or that needs extra attention. By doing a case study things that cause distress, anxiety, disorder, or distraction could be noted. This could help a teacher know if something he/she is doing positively/negatively affects the students.

I really enjoyed doing the enthnographic narrative because the boy I talked to was very sweet. He is very close to his family especially so with his little sister, who is disabled, and he helps her a lot. The narrative gives a much more in depth look at the student and what they are going through or have gone through. My student is not particularly close to his cousins who live in TN, and has never met any of his grandparents because they live in Mexico. This will help the current teacher and future teachers understand and be more sensitive towards this student. He may not always have the family support other students have or he may have more responsibilities to help with the family.

SPSE 6712 #3 Reflective Fieldnote

I really value everything I've learned about how to conduct an action research, and the experiences I've had with action research. In order to do an action research, a person must have a problem or situation he/she wants to better in some way. The problem should be within the means of the researcher to study and help directly. Therefore, action research is a great way for teachers to study and find solutions to problems in their classrooms and with their students.

Looking at the students' grades was not as helpful as I had expected. The students had varying grades and it was hard to pinpoint if there was any pattern. Some students are also being tested for learning difficulties, and this makes it difficult group them with other students. I also found that students were really happy to help and they felt like what they needed/wanted was really important by taking part in the research. I think this can be a great way for the teacher to make students feel like they are a special part of the community and to "join forces."

I would advise to other professionals in the ESL community the importance of a literature rich environment. I found that when the students were able to actually read the passage that they were listening they actually did better in comprehension, spelling, and writing complete sentences. This may have been because they could comprehend what they were reading opposed to what they were hearing (perhaps due to an accent), they could actually view the words written correctly, or because they had just had many examples of complete sentences. I think that the more a student is exposed to reading and examples of correct word spelling and sentences, the easier or more natural it will become for a student.

SPSE 6810 #5

I chose to talk about the article "Green Schools Don't Make the Grade". I am very passionate about recycling and trying to be "green." I really liked that someone was trying to make a difference by encouraging and providing rewards for schools that became more green. I thought it was very unfortunate that it was not researched well enough to have actual results closer to the expected results.


I do firmly believe that schools in America can be greener. I lived and worked in Japan for two years at two high schools teaching English as a foreign language. Luxuries that we take for granted in America would be considered a huge waste in Japan; while things that were taken for granted in Japan would have been a big "inconvenience" here. For example, air conditioning and heat. Students had to pay tuition to attend school and (at my schools) they had to pay extra to have air conditioning and heating. Even then, air conditioning and heating was only used when the temperature hit certain temperatures. Where I lived in Japan had very mild temperature, though, and rarely went below freezing or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. My schools also had separate trash cans for different items. Plastic, paper, drink boxes, and cans were also separated. Students also spent usually 15 minutes every afternoon to clean the classrooms and school grounds. Lights and air/heat were only used in rooms being used, and hallways and bathrooms were not kept warm/cool. The schools saved a lot of money, of course, on energy. They also saved on food/drink items and disposing of them. Because they were so conscientious of their waste, companies used materials that were easier to dispose of on their goods.


Teachers and students, both, worked together to keep the campus clean and efficient. Teachers kept their attitude positive and always tried to teach the students how to live well and treat others (and nature) well. Japan does a lot of what it does out of necessity. They are a small country with limited resources. It was so ingrained into the culture that even my rebellious students know to properly dispose of trash, and that they are responsible for what they leave behind.

I am happy that people were making an effort to better the schools in America, but I hope that this failure does not stunt other efforts in the future. I think there is definitely room for improvement, but it may not be something that can be easily fixed in a short period of time. I think it will take time and a complete adjustment on opinions, values, and attitudes.

(My favorite Japanese word/saying:Mottainai)

SPSE 6810 #4 Multiculturalism in the Curriculum

I agree most with Adam Waxler's article "Multiculturalism in the School Curriculum". Basically, Waxler is saying that schools should not incorporate a entirely new curriculum, but instead keep the existing curriculum and incorporate information and activities into the curriculum. Teachers should not strictly use textbooks. They should use a variety of materials and information to make the curriculum multicultural. I agree that it is too difficult to try to create a curriculum that pleases everyone, but multiculturalism can be taught no matter what is included into the curriculum.

I haven't taught much in American schools, so I cannot talk from experience. I worked for two years in Japan, though. All of my students, with the exception of two, were Japanese. One student was Italian, and had lived in Japan for over 5 years. The other was an exchange student from Australia. These two students followed the same curriculum that all the other Japanese students learned. It was not changed or adapted in any way for them. The two boys were also firmly expected to follow the same policies as everyone else. There were to wear school uniforms, write/speak in Japanese, participate in a club/sport, and anything else students had to do. These students were encouraged to talk about their home countries and culture in class, but were treated just like any other student.

SPSE 6810 #3 Multicultural Curriculum

After reading the three articles I agree on these two statements: it is impossible to please everyone, and a nation is going to teach it's kids a national education. It is next to impossible to form a curriculum for a large group of people that will please everyone. This task becomes even harder when the group is diverse. Each and every person has an idea of what is vital to learn, and what should not be included in the curriculum.

I fully believe that the people involved in creating a curriculum are doing their best and including what they think is vital. Since the people who are deciding the curriculum are probably from the nation in which the curriculum will be used; they will value similar national events. Nations always teach history from a very biased viewpoint. As an American, learning history in a TN school, I always learned about WWII, the Germans, and the Japanese. I did not know about all the numerous times we bombed Japan. During my first lesson of teaching English in Japan; I had a student ask me why America bombed them. I later found out the student knew nothing about Pearl Harbor. It is the same for Vietnam. I toured around Vietnam some and saw a lot of the devastation left from the war that I had never heard about. What was worse were all the people mutilated and mutated from the war.

I don't think multiculturalism is bad; it is just difficult(at times). I think it provides the opportunity to take all the good qualities from individual cultures to make a more blended one. In order for disputes to be settled and curriculum discussed successfully, everyone involved must be prepared to be patient, culturally sensitive, and flexible. Deciding a curriculum is challenging for anyone involved. Deciding what to teach in history is going to be even more stressful and taxing and everyone must be willing to make compromises.

SPSE 6810 #2 Glamorous Grammar

I think grammar is necessary if students want to pursue a professional or academic career. I do agree that Standard English is a dialect, and that no certain dialect is should be considered better or worse than another. I also agree, though, that to advance in America there are some dialects that are more accepted than others.

I think students will learn better when they have many resources available to them. Personally, I think reading is the best way to learn about spelling, sentence structure, and grammar. Computers can provide other opportunities for students to use their knowledge and learn more. Students can research on the computer and then form informative paragraphs to present later. Students can also play interactive games that may teach about grammar. Good grammar books and workbooks are beneficial as well. I like Daily Oral Language (DOL), and providing opportunities for students to work together to find mistakes or to check each others' work. It is important that the teacher includes multiple ways of learning grammar, so that students can find a method that best suits them. I am a visual person, but I do best when I absorb material in multiple ways. If I hear, see, and correct grammar myself I will remember it better than only completing sentences in a workbook.

SPSE 6712 #2 Observation and Problem Identification

During my second observation in the ESL classroom I noticed a view things that could be concerning. There is one student who is newly from Mexico and does not speak any English. The ESL teacher helps him with all of his other homework as well studying English. The ESL teacher has to know how to teach these other subjects like the regular classroom teacher. She said that she spent two years of watching the math teacher to learn how he teaches math so that she could duplicate his methods. She also needed a refresher in how to solve the math problems. This could be an issue for new teachers who have not had time to observe the other teachers or are consistently too busy to spare time to observe. This will require that the teacher spends a lot of time outside of class to learn what the students are learning in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade classes.

One class I observed was the 7th grade English class. There are only six boys in the class; five of which have lived in America and gone to American schools many years. The sixth boy has been in America less than a year and lacks a lot of the vocabulary and knowledge the other boys already know. The five boys are in ESL to perfect their skills so they can pass the ELDA with high scores. I watched them use 11 prepositions from their list to create sentences. The five boys were focusing more on forming correct sentences and spelling correctly. The sixth boy knew how to form sentences, but was struggling to create a sentence, because of a lack of vocabulary. I think it could be difficult to focus on the varying needs and levels of the students.

The students, daily, work on Daily Oral Language (DOL) and Goofs. The DOL consists of three sentences that they are to correct on their own and then as a class. The goofs are powerpoint presentations that the students create of incorrect and correct sentences. One student, each day, will show his goof. On the day I observed the students also created 11 sentences using prepositions from their preposition list. The students have multiple opportunities to work together for help or to check their work. Often, students have more courage to offer answers or ask questions when they are working in a group. The students have lots of opportunities to work on the computers, and they really enjoy it. For the students who need their skills perfected, the computer requires attention to spelling and offers help. These students also are not as familar with using a computer, so they are learning valuable computer skills. The newer student is more experienced with using a computer, so he knows how to navigate easily while he learns more English.

I think that most middle school ESL teachers will need to not only be knowledgable in English skills for students trying to test out of ESL, but also of all the other subject material so they can help new learners of English complete their work. The ESL teacher will need to possess the knowledge and skills of the regular classroom teachers, and know how to best teach someone who is not proficient in English. The teacher I am observing seems to be under a lot of pressure to help her select students test out of the ESL program within the next year. They are close to scoring high enough on the ELDA, but they have are still making mistakes that second language learners make. On the other hand, she has two learners who are very new to the English language. She has very few truly intermediate English learners. These are such contrasting levels that it is hard to provide each level with the attention they need to succeed when in the same classroom. As the students created their sentences using the prepositions the teacher explained each word and the situation they might be used. She explained how a word, like amid, is not commonly used in TN, but could be found while reading or on a test. The students were welcome to create sentences about their home countries, and those would be discussed with the class.