Teacher Interview on Grading Practices

1. Itinerary

First Contact: Aug. 17

Class Visit & Interview: Aug. 26, 6:20 p.m.~7:40 p.m.

Make-up Interview: Aug. 27, 1:00 p.m.~3:00 p.m.

2. Report

Target Teaching Level: Grade 4~6 - early intermediate EFL

Location: Gwngju Kyeonggido South Korea

Teacher: Kim Seoyeon, Korean

Teacher's Background: Majored in counseling and over 6 years' teaching experience

Grading English Learners

As I asked the teacher about how she grades students, she answered that she uses teacher-constructed test with multiple choices, T/F questions, fill-in-the-blank ones, and matching things. She also said that she uses portfolio and teacher observation. The student's attitude is considered to decide to move up. Students who get low grades will stay on the same level and others move up. It stimulates students to study harder. Whenever she thinks she needs help from parents, she contacts and explains the situation and asks parents for help. As Hakwon is a preparatory cram school for higher level official education, the improvement and preparation of each student must be checked and made sure students have understood and have enough knowledge. To rotate the same level books for repetition is efficient. Still there may be disadvantages that some students hate to do the same theme once again feeling being left behind. That could discourage them to give up learning itself or move out of the school.

Individual management

Individual assignment doesn't seem to be highly related with the grading, even though the teacher gives individually modified assignments. The sincerity or passion of learning is graded by their completion of the assignments. The teacher recorded student attendance, test result, assignment completion, and attitude in the roll book which helps other teachers grasp the situation easily. Every term lasts three month and after that students take test to be judged to move up or not. While teaching students, if the teacher thinks a student is not following the course well, the teacher has the student stay in the same level to repeat the course again with different contents but same level books. This is used as a way to help late-learners to have more time to understand the required English components. For students who need special care, teachers have them stay after school to study more. If that doesn't work, teachers ask parents to make students do individual assignment or make-up assignment at home. When things don't get better, students have no choice but to stay at the same level to do once again. That could be the last intervention.

Achieving School Standards

Everything is considered to grade students from attendance to test results. The school has four levels with nine steps so actually students have to go up 36steps to finish the highest level. In addition, if they don't get good test results, they have to stay at the same level again or maybe three times. The grades of individual students are directly reflected on assessment of their achievement. However acquiring the required test results is not that difficult. Students are only questioned how much they know about what they have studied for one term. Judged by the TESOL standards, the schools standards are mostly focused on instructional purposes for language arts. The other areas are excluded, I think it's because of the limited time and preparation for SAT and qualified teacher shortage.

My Opinion

What I thought while I was watching the class is that everything is going by the rules even though the class I attended was called "debating class", the class had a set of rules to debate which seemed to prohibit students from speaking freely. Learner autonomy should be considered and encouraged to speak up and to lead their own learning. Still most of the lessons are done with direct teaching methods. New approaches need to be attempted to make the class more vibrant.

Site Visit/Program Description

1.Itinerary

First Contact: Aug 17.

First Visit: August 23.

Second Visit: August 26.

2. Report

Site: Royal Academy

Target Teaching Level : Grade 1-9

Location: Gwangju Kyeonggido, South Korea

Headmaster: Jeon Mekyeong, Korean

Headmaster's Background: Majored in English Education,

TESOL certificate in SMWU and over 15 years' teaching experience

Placement Test & Instruction

The placement is the result of the placement test developed in the Academy. As a diagnostic test, students have to take a placement test divided into 4 areas, listening, speaking, writing, and reading. According to the result, they will be assigned in a class. Headmaster Jeon said that she thinks the right class level for the student is the most important thing. She tries very hard to put students into a right level to get proper improvement according to the placement test. The school uses "Keeping-in-the-Same-Class" system until the student acquire the required English level. After students are deployed in a class, they learn English with many materials. They are graded by their performance and regular test results after three months that is, one term. Progression is tracked in every three month with tests based on what they studied for the last three month. In accordance with the result, some students have to be kept in the same class while others move up. This school has students take another test called comprehensive test which uses official test sheets used nationally. With this comprehensive test, teachers get more objective evaluation results about their students' current level.

Instruction

The school uses every course book, grammar book, phonics book, reading book published at home and overseas. They use the way of rotation of the same level books from publisher to publisher until a student becomes knowledgeable enough to move up. Instuction and textbooks are chosen on the basis of students' current level. This method is also used to help late-learners to get used to the new materials and words, grammar rules required for a certain level. Other students in a group move up and late-learners are told to be stay to do reviews for an extra term. Most classes are taught by traditional teaching methods, direct teaching methods. To make up the disadvantages of those methods, teachers give extra assignment like surveying the topic in advance and summarizing the content after class. Around four or five times field trips with the native teachers give students some opportunities to interact in social context. Every two to three month, the school holds a "Presentation Day". From the beginning class to the advanced class, all students get together and show what they can do with English from simple self-introductions to dramas.

My Opinion

This school is a high quality education center. Teaching is likely to be affected by the societal requests. Korea is highly academic test-oriented country. Especially English ability is a major yardstick to judge a person's ability to study or work. Most private English academies are for those purposes. Even though this school is teaching grammar translation with rite memory a lot, it also tries to give more opportunities to use English in a social context. If I might have a right to change some parts, though, I would introduce cognitive and metacognitive teaching methods. As Diaz-Rico (2008) noted, "given the limited time available for in-class instruction", educators can't teach everything in class so teachers should teach them to learn how to learn. (Diaz-Rico, 2008, p. 105) One more thing is that continuous "Keeping-in-the-Same-Class" could be replaced more appropriate intervention during the term. But that this school doesn't try to get quick results is very impressive and recommendable.

CHAPTER 4. Performance-Based Learning

What is performance-based learning? Why performance-based learning? How to evaluate what the students learn and how well they know? These are the questions dealt with in this chapter. The answer could be to help students to understand and use in reality what they are learning. Through performance-based learning, students could experience not just learn new things. Learning strategies that students learn can be used in other areas in their school and outside life. It is related to "a student's ability to think knowledgeably about real-life problems." (p. 79). To do all these performance-based learning, teachers stick to the learning standards not to stray away without destination. ELD standards or TESOL standards will guide what learning objectives should be completed in school.

Accordingly the evaluation could assess all the process and stimulate students to learn through learning the way to learn. So the assessment methods should be changed from the traditional summative ways to formative ways with summative ways. Assessment methods to be used are rubrics, portfolio, teacher observation, and student self-evaluation and peer assessment. To help ELLs, schools have to diagnose and retest for redesignation students more accurately. Proper approach to each student and adequate teaching method with taking time is necessary to help students.

Response to Sunmi Kim

As Sunmi Kim mentioned, when students are assessed properly according to their development or content areas, assessment can be a helpful tool to monitor their own strength and weakness and to set a academic goal based on the results of the assessment. So, assessment should be considered as an important tool to enhance learning.

Diaz-Rico (2008) suggested a variety of assessment methods: Teacher-student created rubrics, teacher-constructed tests, portfolio assessment, teacher observation and evaluation, grading, and student self-assessment and peer assessment. (pp. 80-85) All these methods should be modified and adjusted to be a proper tool for enhancing learning.

Response to Miok Choi

As Miok Choi mentioned, teachers should understand not only standards but also students in order to offer the best environment in education. To make instructions more systematic and well-directed, standards like ELD should control whole teaching process and learners cultural, social, personal experiences should be considered to meet learning goals more easily.

As she cited, Diaz-Rico (2008. p.96) mentioned that tasks are rehearse communicative events that take place in the real world, usinf language that appears naturally in these events. It means teachers should consider how things learned in class could be used in learners' real world.

Download Standards-based lesson plans

1. STANDARDS

The followings are the standards for English Language Learning.

English-Language Development Standards for California Public Schools K-12
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/englangdevstnd.pdf

English-Language Arts Contents Standards for California Public Schools K-12
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/elacontentstnds.pdf

TESOL Standards
http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=281&DID=13323#levels


2. LESSON PLAN

This lesson plan used TESOL SLP standards.

A is for Apple

by Judie Haynes

Combine science, language arts, and math with an apple theme for Fall. This is an excellent unit for mixed level ESL classes and can be taught to students of a wide variety of ages and abilities.

In many parts of the United States apples are a sign of Fall. We go apple picking and drink fresh apple cider. We eat apple pie and apple dumplings. Apples provide a means to combine English language learning with content area instruction. Even your newcomers can participate in the "hands-on" parts of this lesson.

Lesson Topic

Apple Theme Unit

Grade/Proficiency Level

Grades 1-3 beginning to intermediate ESL; Grades 3-8 beginning-advanced beginning ESL

TESOL Goal and Standard

Goal 2, Standard 2 - To use English to achieve academically in all content areas: Students will be able to use English to obtain, process, contruct, and provide subject matter information in spoken and written form.

Goal 3, Standard 1 - To use English in socially and culturally appropriate ways: Students will use the appropriate language variety, register, and genre according to audience, purpose, and setting.

Content Concepts/Skills

Changes in nature; how apples grow; observing and keeping a science journal; experiments with apples

Materials

Library books about apples; five or six different kinds of apples; plastic knives; PDF downloads

Vocabulary

round, sweet, tart,juicy, hard, crisp, crunchy ripe, shiny, delicious, skin, core, seeds, Jonathan, Rome Beauty, Mc Intosh, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Red Delicious

Instructional Sequence

• Download PDF files from the New York Apple Association This site contains background information, games, puzzles and other activities for children.
• Make a KWL Chart with your students. Ask them to tell you what they know about apples. Elicit responses from students by asking questions. Write their responses on the chart paper. You may want older students to copy the responses on a smaller chart.
• Read a short book about apple growing that is appropriate for your students. If your library does not carry a book which is easy, find one with good pictures and tell the story in your own words. Try Apple Picking Time by Michele Benoit Slawson or The Season of Arnold's Apples, by Gail Gibbons.
• Have students review the steps in the process of apples growing trees by using sentence strips. Students should be able to sequence the steps.
• Divide your students into pairs. Give each pair a different type of apple. Have students draw their apples in their science journals and color them. Help students to write words to describe how their apples look. Use the pictures of apples on the web to determine what kinds of apples they have.
• Help students to cut their apples in halves so that they can see the core. Have them look at their apples and draw a picture of the cross-section in their notebooks. Ask students to remove and count the number of seeds. Whose apple had the most seeds? the least amount? This is a good time to introduce fractions to your students if this type of lesson is grade appropriate. Remember many students will not know fractions from their native countries because most of the world uses the metric system.
• Allow students to cut off pieces of their apples to taste. Help them write words to describe how the apples taste. Next they should give a piece of their apples to each of the other students in the class so that the tastes of different kinds of apples can be compared.
• Develop vocabulary for describing apples. Download PDF file Apple Wheel. Have students write a descriptive sentence on each part of the wheel using vocabulary for describing apples: round, sweet, tart,juicy, hard, crisp, crunchy, ripe, shiny, delicious, round, red, yellow, green, hard.
• Have students write about their apple. Use the PDF fileApple Shape as a background to the writing. Have students tell what apple they liked best and what apple they didn't like.

Activities for ESL Students in Grades 3-8

Brainstorm a list of apple dishes your students enjoy. If necessary, bring in various apple treats that your students are not familar with so that they can taste them. Cooking magazines can also be a source for pictures of different types of apple dishes. You want to teach the vocabulary "applesauce, apple pie, apple juice, baked apple, and candy apple."

Have your English language learners survey other students about their favorite apple treat. Download PDF files for the Apple Treat Survey. and make copies. Review the vocabulary and teach students how to conduct a survey. This lesson can be found under Content-based Surveys and Interviews.

Have student in grades 4-8 become "apple detectives." Have them make a list of products made from apples that they find in the grocery store. Download our pdf fileApple Detective.

Use the lesson plans at Healthy Choices for Kids Online.

Activity Downloads

Note: To view the classroom activities, you must have Acrobat Reader intalled. Acrobat is a free application available from Adobe Systems.

Apple Wheel (69k .PDF)

Apple Detective (5k .PDF)

Apple Treat Survey (2k .PDF)

Apple Word Puzzle (63k .PDF)

Apple Shape Book (64k .PDF)

Related Links

Johnny Appleseed, an American Folk Hero
Teach your ELLs about American Folktales through a unit on Johnny Appleseed. This is a perfect accompaniment to a thematic unit on Apples or on other Fall topics.

© 1998-2005 Judie Haynes, www.everythingESL.net

CHAPTER 3. Views of Teaching and Learning

This chapter makes readers think of the philosophy and psychology behind teaching. When teachers enter the classroom they bring their own philosophy, beliefs, and culture which might collide with the students'. How teachers handle contents and students will be affected by school culture, interaction with students, and educational psychology teachers enact.

Five types of educational psychology are introduced: behavioral methods, cognitive methods, humanistic education, cultural anthropology and education, and postmodernism. As behavioral methods are teacher centered, extrinsic reinforcement, it is useful to for teaching such topics as grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation. Cognitive methods help students develop their own critical thinking skills like organization and elaboration strategies. Human brain has all gadgets like LAD, neurons so that students acquire grammar rules and monitor the utterance. Humanistic education put emphasis on the emotional factors students have. Teachers can help students adjust to school and their lives by Encouraging self-esteem, motivation and reducing anxiety.

Response to Sunggeon Jeong

As Sunggeon Jeong mentioned, behaviorism focuses on rote memorization and a direct teaching. It also motivate students with material things or grades by which some students remain unmoved and uninterested. He points out that those students who aren't motivated by the external rewards like grades get bored with rote memorization and curriculum designed by teachers and left no room for creativity of students. He points another problem of behaviorism is that it focuses on grammatical competence in the expense of communicative competence. However many disadvantages behaviorism has, it also has advantages to teach those who need more systematic and explicit explanation.

Response to Miok Choi

As Miok CHoi mentioned, each learner brings individual learning style into the classroom which teachers should consider to teach better. Some are visual, Some are kinesthetic, and others are auditory. She pointed that some shy students may not show their preferences in the class not to be detected by the teacher. She suggested teachers help students build up positive self-concepts to be a better learner. I agree with her on that Individual learning styles should be considered. I also think that other different learning styles should be introduced to students for them to try and realize that there are more ways to learn which they might like.

Chapter 2. Critical Roles for Teachers.

Teachers influence the daily lives of students in their classrooms. (p. 22)
Teachers have....a special role in the classroom: as language emissaries and mediators; as agents of introduction to the target culture; and as sources of professional knowledge for their colleagues. (p. 22)
As Hones (1999, p.27) put it, "Critical pedagogy is a way of teaching and learning that poses problems about the world, with the goal of helping all participants become more rully human and transform the reality around them. (p. 23)
Critical Pedagogy vs Banking Model s of instruction
Tollefson, Foucault, Bourdieu, Cummins, and Fairclough represent critical sociological points of view and offer insights about language policies in education. (p. 26)

chapter 1. Who are English learners and their teachers?

The term English learners means those who are learning English as nonnative speakers. (p. 2)

The term teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) includes those who teach English learners in general, although classroom teachers may think of themselfes as "elementary teachers," "bilingual teachers," or "English teachers." (p. 3)

Language learning is a complex, dynamic process that forms the foundation for cademic skills. (p. 5)

It is my hope that those who use this book will become inspired to look within, around, and beyond social and educational issues; to ask probing questions concerning the role of educators in the struggle to attain fairness, justice, equity and equal opportunity in the world; and also to work toward social equity and justice as part of their role as language educators. (p. 7)

English as an International Language (EIL) (p. 16)

Is Englich Natural, Neutral, and Beneficail?

Woodbury (2001, p.1) "Language loss entails the loss of the cultural, spiritual, and intellectual life of a people as experienced through language, ranging from prayers, myths, ceremonies, poetry, oratory, and technical vocabulary, to everyday greetings, leave-takings, conversational styles, humor, ways of speaking to children, and unique terms for habits, behavior, and emotions." (p. 19)

Professional Organizations for Teachers of English Learners

TESOL, Inc.

The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE, http://www.nabe.org/)

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE, http://www.ncte.org/)

International Reading Association (IRA, http://www.ira.org/)

International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL, http://www.iatefl.org/)

Show what you know.