Planning for English Language Learners

Next semester I plan to teach a unit on color theory. I have chosen four different stages of language learners that might be in my class for this coming year. These are speech emergent, beginning fluency, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency.  For the emergent learner the basic vocabulary is already there and that the vocabulary has increased and the times they make mistakes have decreased. But they still need some extra help when it comes to making connections and using the vocabulary. A lot of the students may have some of the basics for the color wheel, but they will go deeper into the concept of what color holds in this world. For this reason I will be having students write down all vocabulary words at the beginning of the lesson, before we get started, that way they will not be shocked when different words come up they will be ready for them. And then I will emphasis the words throughout the instructions, making sure students remember to use them when explaining them.This is one of the first step in the English Language teaching strategies. Keeping the vocabulary where students can see will help students make the vocabulary that will be used common. For the students who are beginning fluency and still have trouble to express himself because of gaps in vocab or appropriate phrases. Even though students may struggle with gaps in their vocab, they still will be expected to communicate with each other during their art critics when it comes to explaining their rough draft, final project, and art critiques. Having sentence stems in their sketchbook to help when giving these talks will help students be able to communicate more fluently without worry. Some of these sentence stems could be, “The reason I chose these colors is________”, “I find that your use of balance is__________”. This is based off of the second strategies for English Language teachers, which is “guided learning”. For the students who are intermediate, they already demonstrate a higher order thinking skill, and therefore can offer an opinion or analyze a problem, using the strategy of authentic assessment we will use a variety mini projects and different ways to assess in the unit. So instead of just having one final project at the end of the unit to assess if they understood the concepts. Instead we will be using a variety of mini projects in the sketchbook like an echo line project that focuses only on tone, value, and tint, a paper cutting project that focuses on the concept of complementary colors, a small color theory quiz, a sketch book assignment that focuses on composition and balance in the artwork. This way we can see if they actually understood all the concepts over time. The final language learner will be the advance fluency where is essentially fluent but with accent. Which doesn't need much additional help, but could use the previous strategies along with meaning based, to have students connect on a deeper level with the content.

Special Education Referral Process

Part of being a good teacher is to make sure each student is learning. But that is easier said than done. As a good teacher one has to be able to observe and identify what a student needs, the best way they learn, and how to implement differentiated instructions and sometimes even know when to refer them to learning support. I had the amazing time interviewing my colleagues , 1 councilor who shall be known as Mr. Y, and 2 teachers Mr. H and Ms. Q. Because not everyone is at summer school, I used a program called "whatsapp", a messaging app very popular over here in Hong Kong, to interview the teachers. I would ask the questions via text and they would use voice to respond back to me with a voice recording. For the interview with the councilor we interviewed in person with a voice recording of the interview. 

Interview with the Councilor- Mr. Y

• How is a student identified for special education referral?

• The whole system has been revamped and implement a new protocol. A teacher has the ability to recognize the needs a student will have. Teachers already have differentiation, but if they need extra support they will ask a referral. They will talk to the special needs teacher who will come in and make an observation to see how they should help.

• Who takes responsibility for the progress of the child before and after the referral?

• Both the teacher and the Learning support staff. The paperwork usually comes under case manager, but the teaching strategies and teaching the material, takes the lead.

• What is the school administration's directive for special education?

• Moving fully into inclusion, getting the students into the school who have mild needs. Seeing support take base. Hard to fully implement, because of the newness. Some teachers seem weary about having additional students with special needs in the classroom because of the extra time involved but the head of school wants to champion the cause. And making sure there is documentation to go along with the support.

• What provisions are made for students identified for special education?

• They get put on a plan developed by a teacher and a special ed teacher, as well as the principle and the parents. Student will sometimes be brought into the meetings to talk about how it isn't a stigma that there is no label but these are needs that they have and they will be owning the support that they get.

• What is the level of parent involvement in referral process and special education?

• Important because they need to be following at home. Important to get them involved earlier on, the more cooperation, even though they are at school for 8 hours a day there are more hours they are at home and its important for the family to be involved

• What are some areas the school does excel in? 

• Supporting our students helping our students the best that we can. Teachers using different teaching strategies. The revitalization of the whole process. Make it about the student and doing our best to meet their needs.

• What are some cultural differences you see in the USA vs. our school in Hong Kong ?

• US it's required by law. There are appropriate channels, staff on site to administer tests for cognitive and behavioral, and they don't need to pay for it. In Hong Kong it's very expensive to have a student treated as well as get the documentation they need, a deterrent for parents to have their child tested. More of a stigma in Hong Kong and parents do not want to be labeled. Need for more awareness that people are not the same and we all need help. Students also need to know that they are not all the same that they are not cookie cutter models of each other. Every student has specific strengths and areas they need to improve on.
• 
  

Interview with two teachers from my School. Mr. H and Ms. Q.

• How do you identify a student for special education?

Mr H: Student clearly has difficulty in their development, academic, social, emotional, effect the process of learning material and advancing in school.

Ms. Q: Watching for methods that work for other students that don't work for this student. Not weak all over, but weak in some areas. Doesn't seem to be a link between them. If can't find a link then see if they need help with special help. 

• What are the signs of a struggling student?

Mr. H: Difficulty socializing with peers, developing friends, new friends, trust in peers. Teachers look at more which is the academic side. Students cant keep up with content or focusing in class. This is difficult in Middle School because a lot of kids have trouble focusing, it could be need for special education or if they are still developing. That is why there should be different levels and tiers for referral. 
Ms. Q: When you look at data, test scores, participation, what you notice what they say vs what they write vs what they do. The differences between what they say and what the can do. A general inability to keep up with peers or standards. Most concern when modifications have changed so much that expectations are lowered. 

• Are there alternate methods of instruction tried out before referring the student for special education? If yes, what are they?

Mr. H: Different methods could be differentiating the instruction if a student doesn't learn well if a student is lecturing because they are a Kinetics learner and need more hands on activity to be able to receive the information. Maybe they didn't need any special education but they learn differently from their peers. 

Ms. Q: Always alternative methods before referring them. Trying lots of strategies, prefer sitting, visual aids, written and verbal instructions, type instead of write, have some choice in assessment, verbal vs written response, not all the instructions on summative assessment at the end, taking formative assessment. Looking at all the pieces, lots of different strategy to try before hand just to see what works and what doesn't.

• Do you have a specific example or a story of how you used a personalized learning plan?

Ms. Q: A student with S as far as she would not understood things in class, never spoke up in class. Gave her a card that had a prompt card. In the end had to prompt her personally. In the end the plan had to change. 

After the Interviews-
Even though the interviews are short and precise, I found that the teachers have a heart for wanting to do whats best for the student. And that they try new things for the student with differentiated instruction before they refer the student to the learning support team. I am very impressed with how they put the student as a focus, that the student isn't a burden, but that the teachers job is to help the student best as they can to make sure that the student is getting all the support that they need. Because I live in Hong Kong, where it is not a law to have to refer a student, the referral process seems a little less formal than in the US, which is required by law. And that even though teachers and learning support are responsible to help the student with needs, they are not bound by law to do so, but instead by the schools policies 

 I have attended meetings for students who needed help from the learning support with these teachers, and I have to say it shows some similarity to the Finish Special Education video I talked about in my last blog post. The video that describes what the teachers work towards helping the student with an individual learning plan. We meet the student is the focus of the meeting, and meet twice a cycle, and to make sure all subject teachers are on board with the process. The referral process the teachers mentioned in the interview gets discussed in these meetings to help the teachers all be on the same page. Our meetings might go something like this: little Jimmy is a kinetic learner and is excelling in certain subjects but falling behind in others, the teachers meet together and discuss how they teach little Jimmy,the teachers who have had success in instruction share their learning strategies and differentiated ideas,and then they come up with a plan to teach him in a way where he will excel, a personalized learning plan,  before suggesting that little Jimmy gets a referral to learning support. 

I think that the whole purpose of special education, personalized learning plans, and the process of referral is important to our students, especially in the 21century, if done well. If student's and parents don't see it as a label or a stigma but as a tool, if teachers don't find it a burden but as a way for students to succeed and shine, then I think that it will be incredibly helpful for the students who in the past who would have been labeled  dumb, or trouble, or unteachable in the past could have an opportunity to reach their potential and be known as The Future. 


Links to the audio clips: 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2AbcDYPeoUFZ2tLLTBZbkpFVEJrcUZTanV0dmM4dnpkTnl3
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2AbcDYPeoUFNFJWSEhfZFhJc3E4VjVNeWp3Y3FxQUxkTFRV
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2AbcDYPeoUFWTA5RUxHSGZrSER4Q0pjVnBvMTdhTnFycHZr
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2AbcDYPeoUFT1EtcXdvWGZkcWc3NjlQSUpORkF0OUdKdTBJ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2AbcDYPeoUFSjBzTk45RW5ISEQ3YjhGZnZsT01TSFp2ZlBr
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2AbcDYPeoUFa0xDRHJPb05HYnM4dGFVZXFFS1RpaUY3SnBr

Personalized learning

This week I was given the task of writing a "reflection on the role personalized learning plays in special education today, how you see it being addressed in tomorrow's world, and reasons to justify your opinions."

As I was reading up on the role personalized learning plays in special education today a few different contents got my attention, Finland's response to special education, the National Center of Learning Disabilities web page, and how one of my colleagues has been using personalized learning for his students in special needs. When I was watching Finland's way to respond to special education a few things in particular really popped out at me.First they said that the help students receive is so common that students who don’t get a little extra help. That the try to detect issues at an earlier stage, theys say that earlier detection is key, that a lot of issues could be resolved if the child was detected earlier. The other part that really got my attention was when they talked about who was involved in the care of a child, the principle, a special ed teacher, a school nurse, psychologist, and the classroom or subject teacher. I think that kind of help is crucial to the success of any student, especially that of a special need student. The third thing that got my attention in the time put in the student. The teachers met with each other twice a month for each child, they plan out a detailed personal plan for their education. The plan put out for learning sounds amazing. To have teachers sit around and discuss how and what can and should be done to help the students using attainable and measurable ways. It brings to mind the old saying “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Using the National Center of Learning Disabilities I found out what a personalized learning plan looks like and what it includes and benefits of a PLP. I found that learning plans include competency-based progressions, flexible learning environments, project based learning, learner profiles, blended or online learning, and personal learning paths. This helped me understand what it entails and what it could look like in a class. This last year our Special Education teacher asked how I would feel if I would try out integrating a student who has a developmental and learning disability into my art and drama class. I said that I would love to and we worked on what the expectations were for him, since this is his first time to be integrated into a regular class we used project based learning for him as well as flexible learning environments. And from that experience I can see what the National Center of Learning Disabilities is saying the benefits are. The site says that it increases student engagement and achievement, Encourages growth mindset, builds decision-making and self-advocacy skills, reduces the stigma of special education, and gives students who think differently multiple ways to show what they have learned. In the experience I saw the part of reducing stigma and gave the student more chances to be engaged and achieve the same standards that the other students achieved. I would meet with his special needs teacher once a cycle to touch base and could hear what the plan for him was.

The last thing that gave me some understanding, was as I reflect on my own opinion on personalized learning was my coworker, the special education teacher. How I have seen him use personalized learning plans and goals has been inspiring. I have seen his students, that in some societies are seen as a burden, grow with skills that others might not have seen because of his use of a personal growth plan, helping them achieve goals that they plan together. And with what I’ve seen him do in his class, the information about Finland's program, and National Center of Learning Disabilities website, I see that using a personalized learning is the future of education! I think this is the future of education. But, not just for special education, instead for all students. Just like in Finland a student would be considered special if a student has not used extra help that is available. Think about it, wouldn’t it be great if the future of our education, took a page out of the special needs program, valuing each student and planning a way for the child to succeed the goals that have been set out in front of them. As the success rate increases as more students achieve, I can see the main stream starting to use the same techniques.

Education Equality

“Education is a right, like the right to have proper food or a roof over your head. Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to education”. Education is not only a right but passport to human development. It opens doors and expands opportunities and freedoms. It contributes to fostering peace, democracy, in economic growth as well as improving health and reducing poverty. The ultimate aim of Education for All is sustainable development.” (Education Counts, September-November 2010)

Every child should have the basic right to education and Mr Ban Ki-Moon from the United Nations says it best “ Education must do more than produce individuals who can read write and count must nurture global citizens who can rise to the 21st century”

These two UN quotes may be true but there are a lot of barriers out there that keep a child from education. According to UNESCO, in 2000 there were 102 million children that i not have the chance to go to school. (UNESCO Global Monitoring, 2015)There are a lot of reasons why children don’t have the opportunity to go to school, some which include poverty, especially girls living in poverty, disabilities, social aspects that prevent a child from education could be child labor, child marriages, or child soldiers, and children living in war torn or natural disaster zones. These children are young and capable and the world leaders took notice and said enough is enough. They have come together to use the resources of UNESCO: United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to create the Education for All Movement.

I found statistics on  the education for all from UNESCO, in 2008 the number of out of school children dropped from 102 to 60 million, that’s around 59%. But the number pretty much stayed there. As of 2013 there are 57 million children out of school, and of those 57 million 49% will never go to school, 28% will start late, 23% will drop out (UNESCO Global Monitoring, 2015). These children are denied the basic human right to education. Statistics similar to these are one reason UNESCO came together in 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar. Where country leaders came together to create the Dakar Framework for Action. They also developed 6 international action goals for countries to meet these are 1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. 2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls,children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free, compulsory primary education of good quality. 3. Ensuring that learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes.4. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults. 5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, with a focus on ensuring girls full and equal access to achievement in basic education of good quality. 6. Improving all aspects of the quality to education and ensuring excellence of all so that  recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

Reading about the 6 goals I was impressed that they didn’t just state that the individuals need education, but needing “quality” education that is globally recognized and measurable. I know that even in a single school the concept of what quality education could be varied and I wanted to see what UNESCO defined as “quality” After reading the EFA Global Monitoring Report from 2005, I came across this quoted text “Although opinions about quality in education are by no means unified, at the level of international debate and action three principles tend to be broadly shared. They can be summarized as the need for more relevance, for greater equity of access and outcome and for proper observance of individual rights. In much current international thinking, these principles guide and inform educational content and processes and represent more general social goals to which education itself should contribute.” So they agree that quality is hard to define but yet it’s crucial to a childs education. For how they measure if the students are learning, they have laid out standards, measures and methods, as well as implementation, which if you want a good long read can access it here (UNESCO, 2013)  . The good news about how they decide these standards, methods, and implementation is to look at the existing global policies and dialogues in the UN conventions as well as the EFA. They also consult with 40 countries to make sure that it is a well rounded assessment method.

After reading all about UNESCO I was curious to see how they will push forward. UNESCO had set pretty high goals and expectations for Education Equality but how will they move forward if they didn’t fully meet their goal for 2015. On April 9th, 2015 in Paris UNESCO met to talk about the unmet goal, that only one half of the countries actually achieved the goals that were set out in 2000. They have set a new target for 2030.(UNESCO, 2015)

But the world doesn’t just rely on UNESCO, even though they are the leading organization to push Education Equality. Another leading organization that pushes for Education Equality is UNICEF. Which also follow the 6 goals for Education that the world leaders have set forth. (UNICEF, 2016) In Hong Kong we see and hear a lot about UNICEF, it even feels like there is a fund raising every weekend by them in our neighborhood sometimes. But I never knew that they were partners with UNESCO. I knew that they wanted to give education to all, but that’s as far as my knowledge of them went. UNICEF is working towards equitable access to education, innovations in education,education in emergencies and post-crisis transitions, as well as girls education and gender equality. Two of their biggest focuses are focused on the education of girls and narrowing the gender gap (UNICEF, 2015)  as well as the education in the aftermath of a crisis.Unicef has estimated that there are around 31 million girls ages 7-11 and 32 million of girls ages 12-18 were out of school in the year 2013. The most shocking information was that in South and West Asia, where 80% of girls vs 16%  of boys that are  out of school  will never go to school. I wanted to learn more about UNICEF so I decided  to follow UNICEF on twitter. Following them on twitter I found a tweet by UNICEF EDUCATION that state that “there are 462 million school aged children and youth living in countries affected by crisis”#LearningforPeace. Following the #on twitter #learningforpeace I found a lot of articles, .orgs, and blogs that talk about UNICEF’s great work that they do with children in crisis. To learn more about UNICEF you can access a lot following them on twitter or Youtube.

There are a few other organizations that also work towards education equality as a goal some of these are Global Partnerships  http://www.globalpartnership.org/. What they do is Financing at scale, harnessing skills and talent, funding for results, and sharing best practice. And another organization is Global Campaign for education  http://www.campaignforeducation.org/en/about-us/about-education-for-all, who also hold to the same 6 goals of UNESCO.

After looking into these organizations for information on Education Equality, I did come away with a few things I never really knew. 1. I knew that education quality was a necessity but I didn't realize how much we as part of a global community were missing the target goal.  That even though it went down by ½ there is still a long way to go. 2. I learned how big the gender equality gap was for boys and girls who go to school. And that if girls were able to go to school or continue in school. Especially for secondary schools, that the poverty rate could go down, child marriages would go down, potential involvement in economic activity and the encouragement of the next generation to go to school.  (Irina Bokova,2011) 3. That I actually could find out more about the different organizations through twitter and youtube than just on their website.

If you want to check out some cool statistics about Education and Equality, you could access this website for more information:

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/education/wTools/Visualtool.aspx

Citations:

UNESCO [GEM Report UNESCO].(Published on Apr 8, 2015). Global Monitoring Report 2015 - Animated launch video [Video File] http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/efa/)

Education Counts (September-November 2010) UN Headquarters, New York. http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/efa/

UNESCO Institute of Statistics (July, 2013) Toward Universal Learning A Global Framework for Measuring Learning. Retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/towards-universal-learning-a-global-framework-for-measuring-learning-metrics-task-force-education-2013-en.pdf

UNESCO (April, 2015) Education for All 2000-2015: Only a third of countries reached global education goals http://en.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/gem-report/files/Press_release_global_en_0.pdf

UNICEF (2015) Introduction http://www.unicef.org/agenda2030/

UNICEF (23 July 2015) Girls' education and gender equality

http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_70640.html

euronews learning world [euronews ] Apr 15, 2011.  - UNESCO targets education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baxZ-g7l3uU

My Reflection on reasons for thinking teaching is a profession or not a profession

My reflection on reasons for thinking teaching is a profession or not a profession. 

I got a chance this week to do some reading on teaching as a profession. Out of all my reading my idea if teaching is viewed as a profession was really shaken by reading " Past as prologue: A historical overview of teaching in America". 
The idea of teaching has really changed over the years, during the school house days of yore, when a teacher usually wasn't educated and the only expectation of the teacher was to teach reading, writing and arithmetic, I might have been on the side arguing that teaching wasn't much of a profession, and that it would be a great job for young women to do before they got married, which was the practice during the time. But times have changed. And now if you were to ask me if teaching is a profession I would say yes. When once you didn't need much training, now you need at least a Bachelors degree in Education or the equivalent. You then need to take several examinations to get your license to teach, you have to have criminal background check, and sometimes even a little more than that. After all that, you still need to take classes on a regular basis, go to conferences, professional development. My students are always shocked to know that I have "Homework" too and that I go to "classes" to keep getting trained in new techniques to present material, new concepts on how children brains work and the best way to engage them, the best way to make sure your student is learning, and how to know if you should suggest they get external help. And that's before getting a masters. I am not sure if things are the same in the States right now. But at the school I teach at most teachers hold a masters or are studying for their masters, and in Finland, where my husband comes from, if I ever want to pursue a job there I would need at least a masters. 

So yes, once upon a time, teaching was not a profession. But, the winds, they are a changing. And it has become a profession. Are some people slow to change with the wind? Yes. Are there teachers out there who don't want to study more and get more from the career, sure. But, I would defiantly say that the amount of education needed for me to teach at the schools I want to teach at would make me and my fellow educators professionals.