My Old High School

My old high school is in Huntington Beach, California.  It is near the beach.  The name of the school is Edison High School, and we were called the Chargers.  When I was a student there we had a very good football team, a surf team, and volleyball team.  I played on the volleyball team.  Every Friday we went to the football games and had a very good time.  We cheered and sometimes faught with the other school.  Our school's colors were green and gold.  After the football games we went back to the school and talked with our friends.  Edison is made of brick.  It is not a pretty school, but we loved our school very much.  I still remember some of my teachers, and I especially remember my friends.

Opening a Conversation

FOCUS:

Today the focus in class was Opening a Conversation.  We first watched a short video about Radiohead called Meeting People is Easy.  We describe the problem that people are too nervous.  This happens to all of us.  It happens because society and culture are difficult for some people.

I NEED TO:

Relax and understand I am not perfect, and it’s ok to make mistakes.  I must be patient with other people also, and not judge them

I INTEND TO:

In the future I will try to be patient with other people and accept other people without being judgmental.  I will also try to remember that I’m not perfect and it’s ok to make mistakes. 

Education World: Best Tweets: “Tracking Student Success” Twitter Party

Education World: Best Tweets: “Tracking Student Success” Twitter Party

English as an interlanguage in Thailand

A new voice must emerge, along with a new identity.  What does this identity look like?  Thais are not sure.  As it is, English language speaking exists in three characteristics: Students across the country who have learned a few words in phrases in school; poor Essarn girls who have learned through their foreign boyfriends, and hi-sos who have learned by living abroad.  Because of this there is no clear English interlanguage as is the case in neighboring countries.  English language identity is tied into class, and in Thailand the two classes seldom merge.  

The Dialogic

http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/strategies/topics/literacy/articles/developing-21st-century-teaching/index.html

These key issues are discussed in the following sections:

1. What is dialogue and why is it important?
2. Why is dialogue so infrequent and difficult?
3. Face-to-face and computer-mediated dialogue
4. The pedagogy, technology, and performance shift
5. Alexander's dialogic teaching: benefits and challenges
6. Four dimensions of 21st century teaching and learning
7. A five-stage process for leading and managing change

Proposition of my Independent Study

I propose and independent study into the sociocultural characteristics of my English language learning students.  While I have limited experience in research, I have over 20 years teaching English language learning, and not during that time have I been asked to participate in research, and for me, that lack of involvement is one of the major reasons why so many language learning models have failed.  Not only has my experiences as a teacher been ignored, but more importantly, my students have been ignored.  Theoreticians  and researches have spent a majority of their time reading, and creating models based on structured research studies that have very little to do with the real world.  

It's time that teachers and students sit at the table, engage in the process of research, and allow us to be participants.  

Purpose

To improve language and Academic learning through a Dialogical classroom
To design activities that encourage Dialogical learning in the classroom

Quote from - Dynamic Assessment

Vygotsky’s research into the development of cognitive functions revealed that this process is not a matter of innate abilities growing into a mature state but that it is the emergence of new ways of thinking, acting, and being that result from an individual’s engagement in activities where he or she is supported by cultural artifacts and by interactions with others. In this way, the social environment is not merely the stage on which development plays out, it is in fact the driving force of development.

Purpose/Objective/Question

To design classroom activities that will encourage student participation in an English speaking community.
Describe students' participation in an English speaking community .
Do my students participate in an English speaking community?

Negotiating Identities

The embedding of the BICS/CALP distinction within a broader framework of academic development in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts that specifies the role of societal power relations in framing teacher-student interactions and determining the social organization of schooling (Cummins, 1986, 2001).

Teacher-student interactions are seen as a process of negotiating identities, reflecting to varying degrees coercive or collaborative relations of power in the wider society. This socialization process within the school determines the extent to which students will engage academically and gain access to the academic registers of schooling.

Using an Identity Approach to language learning

Cummins and Vygotsky

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=75107708

IE assessment

For the Intensive English:

• Assessment
• Make students accountable for their attendance while the course is taking place; end is too late.
• Give students some kind of credit, but not EAPI credit.  (2 credits is plenty)
• Assess students speaking at beginning our course.
• Each instructor will be responsible for assessing their students:
• Possible assessments;
• Attendance
• Participation
• Formative and Summative assessments 
• Portfolio
• Final summative exam if needed. 

Analyzing the Initiation of Transformative Learning on BUUIC students using a Dialogical Approach

Analyzing the Initiation of Transformative Learning on BUUIC students using a Dialogical Approach.

Talking to my students

I want to identify and evaluate the kinds of teaching strategies which encourage and maintain dialogues with students.

Talk with my students and ask them about dialogue.  

Language learning thoughts

Theory or practice; internal or external; making change... creating lifelong learners accepts classroom learning as a piece in a broken process.  2LA occurs from participating in a circular process that takes place between an individual's internal thoughts and the external settings where the target language is used.  Although the focus is on authentic sociocultural settings, in an EFL context those settings may seldom exist, and students must seek opportunities to use the L2.  Who is willing to seek those opportunities?

In an academic setting students are required to engage the L2 socially and academically, but in order to participate academically students must already have social language skills, but few do.

Distinctions

While culture is vital, much of 2LA depends on interaction between individuals.  As theorists ponder in the clouds of conceptual ideals, teachers dredge in daily dealings.  Vygotsky is concerned with communal activities, but Long's Interaction Hypothesis is more in line with American thought from Emerson through Dewy.

To Kill a Mockingbird

This week students will open their own blog, and blog about their thoughts, ideas about the movie... don't read about it on the internet, just write something that YOU think...ok

Reflection

I think...

What?
Today I ....

so what?
This is important

now what?
I will...

Research thoughts, titles

Analyzing The Sociocultural learning theory in an EFL University context
Analyzing Social Media as an English Language Learning tool in an EFL University context
Interview native and non-native speakers social learning
Analyzing Student Beliefs
Using a Sociocultural Framework to Analyze Student learning at an EFL University

Sharing

Students can choose to share, not share, share with some people not others; the choice is yours.

Student interviews

Can open ended interviews with language learners and peer native speakers give us reliable and valuable information about ineraction?

Can this information be used to create meaningful interaction?

Academic Writing week 3

Today, more students arrrived... some from China who had been in China for Chinese New Year.  But, what was amazing??? Choey came on time.

CNY is over, time to blog

This week, students are welcomed back from Chinese New Year break.  Wow, that means we'll be seeing some students return from their long breaks.  This week students will learn a little about blogging, and opening their own blogs.  Good luck!

Digital Language Experience Approach

LEA is an approach that has students use their own experiences to develop their language learning.  Students read, and re-tell to another learner who records the storytelling.  Later, writing can be added. Of course there are a number of activities that can be used.

• "Once a topic evolves, the learner gives an oral account of a personal experience related to that topic. The transcriber may help the learner expand or focus the account by asking questions."  

I would like to use audio/video recordings and DRAGON software to enrich the experience.

Acquisition and Participation

Our world is divided; nearly everywhere you look: good, bad; black, white; conservative, liberal; nature, nurture; competence, performance; individual, collective... and now: Acquisition, Participation.  Let's combine these ideas, and use them to further our learning.

Two Theories, a Combined Approach

Two influential theorists have given us insights into learning; Vygotsky who gave us social constructivism, and Piaget who gave us in individual developmental constructivism.  Seems we have polar views, but in so much of the world, two sides are better than one.  Emerging perspectives on learning allow us to merge the two theories into an approach that combines both learning preferences.

BUUIC Community

It's time to examine 'community'.  We are all a community... some of us have different roles... What is our community?  What place to English play in this community?  I have a hypothesis, that English doesn't play the dominate role it should... which I'm assuming will be surprising considering our school is based on an English curriculum... what learning, English learning takes place outside the classroom... how many students seek opportunities?  Will I get answers?

Bloom's and Education students

Today students were given the opportunity to Critical Think about Critical Thinking.  They looked over Bloom's Taxonomy and how it relates to computer usage