6 Arguments for Smaller Class Sizes

I was recently reading an article about the Chicago Teachers Union and how it is pushing class size as a contract issue. This led me to wonder about how class size affects the academic achievement of English learners (ELs). According to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), a small classroom on the early elementary level would be fewer than 20 students. As a former K–6 teacher of ELs, I would certainly guess that class size has a huge impact on ELs’ achievement in U.S. schools. I’m not referring to the size of the ESL classes (that would be a whole different blog) but that of the general education content class that our students are in most of the day with a classroom or content specialist.

To my surprise, although many research studies have been conducted on the impact of class size on student achievement at the elementary level, there is very little research specifically on the effect of class size on success of ELs in content area classes. NCTE reported that for minority and at-risk students at the elementary level, as well as those who struggle with English literacy, smaller classes enhance academic performance. (Blatchford, Goldstein, Martin, & Browne, 2002; Horning, 2007).

6 Arguments for Smaller Class Sizes

According to many studies that I reviewed, the 6 most important benefits of smaller class size according to teachers, are listed below.

1. Teachers spend more time to working with individual children when they have small classes.
Teachers in smaller classes can more easily follow student learning and differentiate instruction in response to their needs. Because scaffolding of instruction is considered key to the academic achievement of ELs, they would greatly benefit from smaller classes and more teacher attention.

2. The teachers’ role is more educative than managerial.
Teachers with large classes report spending much of their time with classroom management issues. They also reported that there were more discipline problems in larger classrooms.

3. Students in early elementary schools benefit most from smaller class sizes.
Positive effects of small class sizes are most evident in elementary school settings. Furthermore, students who are in small classes in early elementary grades will continue to benefit from this even if they are in larger classes in upper elementary and beyond (Chingos, 2013).

4. Student engagement and participation are higher in smaller size classes.
According to Chingos (2013), students participate more in smaller classes. Rather than listen passively during content area instruction, students are more likely to interact with the teacher and with each other. They speak with both the teacher and their classmates more often.

5. Teachers have more time to develop meaningful relationships with their students and their families.
If teachers have smaller classes, they have more time to get to know and support their students and to interact with their families. Getting to know the families of ELs can take a lot of time because teachers may need to set up interpreters and arrange to meet with families outside of the regular school hours.

6. Large class size adversely affected teacher job satisfaction and attrition.
Class size has an effect on the ability to retain effective teachers because those with large classes are more likely to seek other positions. Research indicates, however, that instead of rewarding effective teachers by decreasing their class size, administrators often increase the class sizes of the most effective teachers in order to ensure better student test scores (Barrett & Toma, 2013)

Why Is It Important to Advocate for Smaller Class Sizes for Your ELs?

In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark case, Lau vs. Nichols, ruled that a school district in San Francisco had denied students of Chinese descent opportunities to participate in classes. The court decreed that the lack of supplemental language instruction in public school for students with limited English proficiency violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In other words, access to education cannot be just equal. It must be equitable. ELs need to have scaffolds and differentiated instruction in their classrooms. In my opinion, it’s much more likely to happen when a teacher has a smaller class size. What do you think?

References

Barrett, N., & Toma, E. F. (2013). Reward or punishment? Class size and teacher quality. Economics of Education Review 35, 41–52.

Blatchford, P., Goldstein, H., Martin, D., & Browne, W. (2002). A study of class size effects in English school reception year classes. British Educational Research Journal, 28(2), 169–185.

Chingos, M. M. (2013). Class size and student outcomes: Research and policy implications. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 32(2), 411–438.

Horning, A. (2007). The definitive article on class size. WPA: Writing Program Administration 31(½), 14–34.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/6-arguments-for-smaller-class-sizes/

🐫🐫It’s hump day🐫🐫

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It’s Wednesday and we made it! 
Enjoy the day!

                     

 

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🐫🐫It’s hump day🐫🐫

from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2019/10/its-hump-day.html

TESOL Member Moment: Araceli Salas

TESOL Member Moment celebrates our members’ achievements and contributions to the field of English language teaching.

Araceli Salas
TESOL Student Member
Teacher-Researcher
Benemérita Universidad de Puebla
Puebla, Mexico

Why are you a TESOL member?

By being a TESOL member I can meet, connect, and collaborate with teachers and ELT professionals from all over the world. TESOL makes me feel aware of my global identity as a language teacher and do some of the things I love doing the most: meeting great people, learning about the ELT profession, and representing my country, Mexico.

What has been your most significant achievement in or contribution to the TESOL field?

TESOL has helped me a lot in my professional development. Now I can give something in return by being an associate editor of the TESOL Journal (TJ) and the MEXTESOL Journal, and by collaborating as the chair-elect of the English as a Foreign Language Interest Section (EFL-IS). At a more local level in Mexico, I love doing teacher-training, and as the editor-in-chief of my school academic journal, I try to help teachers to get published. I want all teachers in the world to have the same opportunities—we can do a lot for each other! TESOL has provided me with the opportunities to make some of my professional dreams come true.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/tesol-member-moment-araceli-salas/

📚Something good to read! 📚

Hello everyone!  Are you looking for 📚Something good to read! 📚

I am reading Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students  by Zaretta Hammond. 

I thought I would share my notes after reading the introduction!    If any of you have read this book, please leave your comments below, we would love to hear your thoughts! 

Today I will share my thoughts about the introduction.

This section outlined the book and its purpose.  It starts with a personal story and then goes on to hit the following points:

ü Neuroscience and Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)

ü Making Culturally Responsive Teaching accessible

ü Zaretta Hammond’s intention when writing this book

ü What the book is and isn’t

ü Naming the students that are targeted in the book

ü Who the book is for

ü The outline of the book

ü Suggestions for getting the most out of the book

 

The part of this section I enjoyed the most was the very last.  After reading the Introduction and pondering on it I wondered if that last heading was actually an example of CRT and provided explicit instruction for reading this book.  Now that got my interest.  Can’t wait to dive into Chapter One!

 

Happy Reading!

 

 

 

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from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2019/10/something-good-to-read.html

Board Games for the ESL/EFL Classroom

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another installment of the games and learning blog. In last month’s blog post, we looked at Minecraft as a standout video game for the classroom. This month, we go analogue and take a look at three great tabletop games for the ESL classroom.

Dixit

Dixit is a guessing game in which players select from a series of cards all featuring dreamlike images. The game begins with each player drawing six cards. Then, one player serves as the storyteller. The storyteller examines their six cards, then chooses one of the cards and creates a sentence that describes the image on their card. It’s critical that the storyteller does not describe the card too accurately, but instead crafts a sentence that leaves room for interpretation.

After the storyteller has created their sentence, the other players choose from their own cards the card that most closely relates to the sentence provided by the storyteller. Then, each player gives their selected card to the storyteller while keeping it secret from the remaining players. The storyteller then shuffles the cards and lays them out for everyone to see.

At this stage of the game, each player uses a numbered chip to vote on which card they think belongs to the storyteller. What’s critical is if everyone guesses the storyteller’s card, each player, except the storyteller, scores two points. If no player correctly guesses the storyteller’s card, everyone but the storyteller scores two points. This requires the storyteller to carefully consider their sentence to strike a balance between too easy and too challenging. Players can also score points by having other players incorrectly vote their card as the storyteller’s card.

Gloom

Gloom is a tongue-in-cheek macabre game where the goal is to kill off your family of eccentric characters by making their day as miserable as possible. The characters can be punctured by porcupines, taunted by tigers, or swindled by a salesman. As each player strives to make their family as miserable as possible, players can work to raise the spirits of the other players’ families. Each of the actions, be it misery or happiness, lowers or raises the life points of the characters. The first player to dispatch their entire family wins.

What makes Gloom a great addition to the language classroom is the storytelling aspect to the game. Though not required, players are encouraged to weave a narrative thread between each of the terrible or positive events that befall their characters. After the game, language learners could further expand on this idea by writing paragraph summations of all that happened to each of their characters.

The Resistance

The Resistance is one of a number of social deduction games, such as Werewolf, The Coup, or Witchhunt. In these games, the players all work toward a common goal; however, one or several players work to conspire against the group. The language and communication aspects of the game revolve around players trying to convince one another who is a villain and who is a hero.

In The Resistance, players battle against an oppressive corporate regime that has infiltrated the resistance fighters with spies. Each round begins with all players being secretly assigned the role of a resistance fighter or a spy. At the start of each round, a player is designated the leader who then decides which of the players to send on a mission. Then, all players vote on whether the mission team is acceptable. Once a mission team has been selected, any spy on the team can opt to sabotage the mission. Should a mission fail, the players can then debate who on the team was the spy, so they can be excluded from future missions. As the number of missions increases, the tension grows and the spies must work harder to keep their cover while the resistance fighters must try and prove their innocence.

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Each of these games work great as a classroom activity with each having an average playtime of 30 minutes. Of course, as with any board game, the first play through can take longer as players learn the rules and rhythms of the game.

Until next month, play more games!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/board-games-for-the-esl-efl-classroom/

Writing for Professional Development

So far in my posts about second language writing, I have focused on topics about teaching writing to language learners. As writing teachers, however, we owe it ourselves and our students to be writers as well as teachers of writing, so this month, I would like to share some of my experiences as a writer.

Writing for Personal Reasons

As much as I loved reading throughout school, I was not an avid writer. I thought about writing in a journal, but rarely did more than a day or two if it wasn’t a school assignment. I did not put in the effort required to take something from thought to publishable text. I didn’t have clever ideas for writing stories, and while I was good at writing reports, they tended to be functional and boring rather than something I would share with anyone besides my teachers.

When I was in the Peace Corps, I got into a relatively regular journal-writing habit and realized that I had a lot of experiences other people might find interesting. Not long after I returned home, I signed up for a weekend-long writing course through University of California, Santa Cruz Extension. In that class, I learned about narrative nonfiction, a genre I had not realized existed. Here at last was a form of writing I could do—I had already had exciting adventures, so I didn’t need to rely on my imagination, and people genuinely wanted to know about places I had gone and people I had met, so I had a real audience.

The other outcome of taking this class was that I met a group of women who were also interested in continuing to write and developing their writing. We started meeting up monthly to share writing and provide feedback. As we gained confidence in our writing abilities, we encouraged each other to revise the stories we wrote and to submit them for publication (in literary journals, local newspapers, and edited books), and after a few years, we decided to self-publish our own anthology. During this time, I was teaching writing and recognized the connections between the processes I was teaching and those I was experiencing with my writing group.

Writing Groups for Motivation

After 6 years of teaching college-level writing, I decided to return to graduate school and pursue a PhD. Although I wrote successfully throughout college and my master’s degree, I had still not had the experience of writing for an academic audience beyond my professors or for any purpose beyond a course term paper. In my doctoral program, I was expected to see course papers as stepping stones to my dissertation research and published journal articles.

With writing as the primary means of demonstrating my accomplishment of program goals, I needed to find a way to keep going, day in and day out. I read dozens of books about doing academic writing and realized that they all boiled down to the same message: Schedule a little bit of writing every day rather than putting it off until you have a large block of open time. This is where my next writing group became essential.

I joined a group of about five fellow graduate students for regular writing sessions at a café where we could set up at several tables, plug in our laptops, and write. Because we were working on widely differing projects, we rarely shared our work with each other. The main purpose of the group was motivation and companionship while doing an essentially isolating task, generating text. We would set a timer and swear to do nothing but write during that time. After the end of the session, then we could talk to each other or check email. Simply knowing that other people were writing at the same time kept me going much longer than I would have pushed myself on my own.

Writing for Publication: Getting Feedback

Although my writing group kept me going and motivated, as I progressed in my graduate program, I also needed focused feedback on my writing. This is where another small group proved valuable. We met at a conference and realized that we were all in the same stage of our graduate programs. Even though we lived across the country from each other, we used the internet and conference calls to meet weekly. Each week, one writer sent out a draft dissertation chapter or research article for the other members to read. When we met on the phone, we provided feedback on whatever the writer had asked for (sometimes it was with reporting data, sometimes it was organizing, and at other times it was with cutting words).

Thanks to this group, I finished my dissertation and have published many journal articles and a book. A few members have left and others have joined, but we continue to meet every other week for productive feedback and moral support. I still struggle to make myself sit down and write, but when I know that my writing group will be reading my work and helping me with what I find difficult, I feel inspired to keep plugging away.

Online Resources for Inspiration and Tracking Your Writing

Not all writers have the fortune to be in a place with fellow writers who want to meet up for writing sessions, and not all writers have access to others who are similarly interested in providing each other with feedback, so I want to finish this post with some recommendations for online resources that can replicate what I have found most useful.

The first is a resource that has a subscription cost, but I have found it worth the investment. Academic Muse is a multifunctional site that brings together coaching and peer support to keep you going with your writing projects. There is a vast resource library of advice for doing academic writing, a daily progress chart, and (my favorite) a chat room where other writers can sign in to conduct timed writing sessions. Even though I don’t know the other people or even where they are, just knowing that we are all writing keeps me going. If you sign in around the same time each day, you get to know the regulars.

If, like me, you struggle with motivating yourself to keep writing, check out the sites and apps recommended in the article “15 Productivity Apps to Help Keep Your Writing Goals on Track.” In addition to apps that time your writing sessions or stop you from checking email, the author also recommends a motivational site called Write Or Die. In this app, you set a timer for how long your writing session will be and then type your text into the text box on the site. The catch? If you stop typing, the app will apply consequences (of your choosing), ranging from an annoying alarm to actually deleting your text. This site works well if you are motivated by fear. If you prefer a positive motivator instead, check out Written?Kitten! Like Write Or Die, Written?Kitten! offers a text box where you type your work. Instead of a punishment for not writing, however, here you get a reward for every 100 words you type: a photo of a cute kitten (or puppy or bunny, if you find those more inspiring).

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I hope my stories have inspired you to keep going with your own writing. Keep in mind that your TESOL affiliate or interest section newsletter would be a great place to share ideas for teaching or your experiences in the field. Let us know in the comments post what you’re doing to stay motivated!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/writing-for-professional-development/

What to teach and when!

Hello everyone,
We are entering October, we are getting to know our students and starting to reevaluate our curriculum guides to match where our students are now.  

As I review my curriculum and make changes I reviewed a poster from a previous workshop and updated a Curriculum Map I offer for free.  Read on and see if any of these ideas will help you pinpoint your teaching to your students.

ESL/ELD K-5 Curriculum Map

a year long pacing guide!

Planning for the year can be overwhelming. Many of you have been asking me for my ESL/ELD curriculum map so here it is!

This year-long ESL/ELD curriculum map, broken down by week, will help you plan your year for all 3 language levels.

✅ Beginner/early intermediate
✅ Intermediate
✅ Early Advanced/Advanced

Each month, under each language level there are language components that I teach during that month. You more than likely have your own resources, activities and curriculum to teach these components.

♥If I have a product that contains all or parts of the language I teach during that month I have listed it. All resource images are click-able links for your convenience. Just click on the image you want to see and it will take you to my TPT store.♥

Each month has a combination of ELD units and/or grammar components essential for English learners. Again choose some or all of what I have here. Feel free to mix it up to suit you!

Click Here to download from TPT!

Every classroom is different! Every teacher teaches differently, and I tried to create this year curriculum map with many different types of classrooms and teachers in mind. I know you may need to tweak this to the needs of your students, classroom, and administration. That’s OK! For example, March is testing month for me. If you need to switch months around to meet your testing time, that is just fine. Do what is best for your students in your classroom.

There is even a column for holidays, which you can use or not u
se, your choice. How awesome is that people? I mean the whole year is planned out for you.

Click here to download!

Happy Teaching!

from Fun To Teach – Grammar, Language, Math, ESL/ELD, Spanish, Reading, Writing, Centers and more! https://esleld.blogspot.com/2019/10/what-to-teach-and-when.html