Course assessment

Overall I found this class to be interesting and useful for my teaching accreditation. This is my first quarter and I really didn't know what to expect. I think I expected a lot more practical knowledge, not that we didn't get that, but not so much theory. But in retrospect I can see where this IS more of a theoretical class, as are most of the classes I will be taking for my ESL training at UCSD. After all we only have to take seven classes and it would unreasonable to expect that we would receive in one year the teacher training that most teachers go to college for four years to learn. And for those people who already have a teaching degree, that would be quite redundant. So after I made a mental adjustment and changed my expectations of what I was going to learn from the UCSD classes, I have found them quite useful.

So having this overview of what different methods of reading and writing were taught in previous decades and centuries for ESL students, and even L1 students, gave me an appreciation of how teaching methods have changed and what is important to keep in mind when teaching reading and writing. Also I now have a better understanding of what is different between teaching someone a foreign language, as in a high school requirement, and ESL, where people are learning English to use in their own lives for their own reasons, whether it be college training or day to day communication. I also like that along with the basic theory, there was practical applications of how to teach reading and writing to ESL students. It will certainly come in useful when I eventually have to get up in front of a class and put my knowledge to the test!

Reading assessment

I really liked Chapter 9 in our book. It had a lot of good ways to assess and test reading skills. I think you definitely need to use a variety of different methods in order to get a true comprehension of what is going on with each student. And also a lot of experience. Teachers who have been teaching for a while have, hopefully, developed the skills and instincts necessary to assess and understand where their students are in their knowledge. However for a beginning teacher it is all a great big mystery and any tools you can find that will help you are going to be beneficial in making you the best and most effective teacher you can be. Having these basic tools will definitely make me aware of what can be done to assess students and make me feel a bit more confident in my abilities to accurately assess them.

As for writing tests, I know that it can be hard. Trying to phrase a question that will adequately test the student's knowledge without being too confusing or too easy is a fine line to walk. Just in trying to create three choices for an idiom every day at work for my co-workers is stressful enough for me. I can imagine how difficult it would be to have to create a whole test! And already my co-workers are asking me if I'm going to test them on these idioms. I can also see where it may be easy to get misdirected in writing your test questions so that you aren't testing the right thing, i.e. what the students have been learning. And doing this for ESL students will be even harder when they don't have the basic language skills to let you know that your test isn't appropriate.

Writing, part 2

After our last class, I thought some more about the difference between writing by hand and typing on the computer. I think another reason I like typing is that I can type so much faster than I can physically write. That way my writing can keep up with my mental processes. If I was to rely on my written skills to get my thoughts on paper, I wouldn't be able to decipher my writing if I tried to write as fast as I thought. I suppose that is why shorthand was originally created; so people could keep up with their thoughts.

I also like typing because it doesn't appear to be just made for righthanded people. The keyboard is equal opportunity, and I don't end up with my hand smeared in ink after typing a paragraph.

Another reason I like typing because it is so easy to make corrections as you go along, change a word here or there, and it catches misspellings or poor grammar. That is a lifesaver for some people. Although I do not like it when I receive emails which are poorly written. If you have the access to an online dictionary, there is no reason you shouldn't be using it!! I don't think haste is an excuse for sloppiness. I am a bit of a spelling/grammar snob, so am easily irritated when they are misused. This probably developed from my college years when I wanted to be an English teacher. Or maybe I just like it because I'm good at it.