THE CHALLENGE POSED BY ELLS IN SEVEN STATES

A new report has been released by the research arm of the Department of Education, designed to help teachers in Rocky Mountain and Midwestern states  who are unaccustomed to teaching ESL.

You can read the article here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2012/02/as_the_number_of_students.html

ARE SUPPORTERS OF COLLEGE EDUCATION ELITIST?

Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum suggests that President Obama’s encouraging young people to pursue a college career has its origins in intellectual snobbery and a desire to indoctrinate them with liberal ideas.

To read the article in its entirety, please go to: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2012/02/santorum_claims_obama_college_agenda_is_elitist.html

”STUDENTS LEARN DIFFERENTLY. SO WHY TEST THEM ALL THE SAME?”

In this piece, educator Arthur Goldstein complains that Common Core and other assessment tools fail to take into account the distinctive needs of English language learners. He writes, “Children are not widgets, and not only teachers, but also educational leaders and test designers, need to differentiate.”

To read the article, please go to: http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/17/students-learn-differently-so-why-test-them-all-the-same?scp=1&sq=Arthur%20Goldstein&st=cse

TOO MUCH EMPHASIS ON HIGH STAKES TESTING

Why We Need to Differentiate Between Assessment & Testing

Posted by Peter DeWitt on December 8, 2011

Educator DeWitt maintains that assessment, both formal and informal, formative and summative, is a necessity to differentiated instruction. It goes on every day, and is needed to understand student strength and weaknesses. On the other hand, high stakes testing, intended as summative testing, receives a disproportionate amount of attention nowadays, focuses only on the subjects being tested. It can have a number of negative effects, the worst perhaps being that it attempts to put all students on a path that they simply cannot handle. Says Dewitt bluntly, “Our high stakes testing era is ruining education.”

To read the article, please go to: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/12/why_we_need_to_differentiate_between_assessment_testing.html

WANTED: LATINO TEACHERS

By Sandra Lilley on December 05, 2011

Lilley reports that Teach for America believes that the presence of more Latino teachers in the classroom can help close the achievement gap.

For article go to: http://www.educationnation.com/index.cfm?objectid=1B04C9EE-1F57-11E1-8E80000C296BA163

UPCOMING ANNUAL CATESOL CONFERENCE

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

We at Authors & Editors want to announce this year’s annual CATESOL Conference, which will meet from April 12 to April 15. The event will be held at the Marriott City Central and the Convention Center in Oakland. (To learn more, please go to www.catesol.com  and click on “conference” or “annual”). 

We plan to attend and make a presentation, in which we will discuss our company’s unique philosophy, goals and product offerings.  

If you click on the link below and submit your email address and name, you will have the opportunity to obtain at no cost a sample of our educational materials (e.g., a Little Book of Big Ideas, a lesson, or a handout from a previous presentation).

WHAT’S REALLY WRONG WITH OUR SCHOOLS?

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

In a nutshell:

Many of our teachers are simply OVERWHELMED – some even driven to distraction - and thus unable to deliver the high quality education they desire to provide, and are capable of providing, to their students.

What's going on here? Too many initiatives - initiatives that come and go faster than they can be integrated into school programs. Constantly changing policies, with more and more forms to fill out. The introduction of new educational technologies that may or may not be ready for prime time.  Excessive weight placed on test results. All this results in less time and energy spent on providing each child with a learning experience suitable to his or her distinctive needs.  So much for the Whole Child approach!

As if all of this weren’t bad enough, we’ve added more students per classroom:  20, 30, sometimes even 40 more, many of whom are not native speakers, vary widely in their preparedness for learning, often come from troubled homes and communities – and without enough professional and support staff to adequately help them.

Is it any wonder that policy-makers, educators, parents, and students themselves have been throwing up their hands in despair?  For the two of us, however, what’s even more amazing is that the schools are performing as well as they are.  

Our advice? Reduce the number of initiatives. Create stability. Allow time for everyone involved to catch their breaths, only moving forward in baby steps - in other words, what we all refer to as the “continual improvement process.” Numerous public agencies have succeeded in doing this. Why not the schools?

WRITER DISCUSSES THE ROLE OF FAMILIES IN ADDRESSING THE DROP-OUT RATE

In this piece, Nora Fleming draws attention to a new toolkit, the work of the Harvard Family Research Project and United Way Worldwide, which describes how to identify students at risk of dropping out and suggests ways to involve parents and the community in matters related to academic achievement. The toolkit also provides case studies of efforts to involve parents and community members, as well as listing the obstacles to such participation; examples include language and insufficient information.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/beyond_schools/2011/12/family_engagement_key_in_preventing_high_school_dropout.html

CALL FOR A CRUSADE

Educator Anthony Cody suggests that teachers, with their strength in numbers and influence, should ally themselves with the rest of the middle class in defending the nation’s beleaguered educational system. The writer lists the principles which he believes should unite such a crusade. He asks, “Can we, as teachers, raise our voices together so as to create some accountability for those who claim to represent us?”

 http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/12/teacher_power_the_one_percent.html

TEACHING, LEARNING AND IMPROVING LANGUAGE SKILLS (continued from the preceding blog).

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

Below are more ways to teach, learn, or improve language competence:

Interact with others who have the same or complementary educational goals. If you can afford it, by all means hire a tutor or mentor; if not, find ways to learn from other learners.  Join—or drop in and out of—real-world and/or virtual meet-ups, as well as chat sites that engage speakers, teachers, and/or learners of your targeted language. In addition, forming relationships with participants who live/work nearby or in locations you travel to can be mutually conducive to learning more about a language or language ed. Relax, focus, and enjoy the relevant processes and their benefits.

Listen to the experts on how best to learn or teach a language. Below are some of the recommendations most frequently offered on the most valued and valuable language-education websites:

• Don’t make excuses for yourself (e.g., perceived limitations such as  age, lack of time, embarrassment). Adopt a positive attitude about language learning and draw on it for the benefit of yourself and other learners.   

• Do all you can to immerse yourself in the language that you are trying to master.

• Try to learn pronunciation, sentence structure and vocabulary not only through formal study, but from what you see and hear around you.  Be sure to check the accuracy of what you have learned with those proficient in the language you are studying.

• Don’t rely on teachers to force you to learn. Instead, take responsibility for your own language growth by choosing content of interest to yourself and others. Again, relax and enjoy yourself; try to get the optimal benefit from your own innate motivation or passion and use it to connect with, and help others.                                                                

TEACHING, LEARNING AND IMPROVING LANGUAGE SKILLS

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

Are you a professional educator – teacher, administrator, or program coordinator? Or are you just someone who wants to help others – your children, parents, or relatives – with their language skills? Or do you want to improve your own proficiency?

Whichever it is, you should know that there are many ways, ranging from the formally structured to the casually intuitive, to teach, learn, or improve language competence. And they are endlessly adaptable to individual circumstances.  

• Enroll in a language or teacher-training course or program. Such opportunities are available at a public or private school, or community site with a physical location.  Try hard to be regular in your attendance, participate fully—including getting your questions answered and requesting whatever you need.  Complete ALL assigned tasks and homework, study the available materials and strive to make the most effective use of the related resources, both hard copy and online.  REMAIN COMMITTED UNTIL THE END OF THE COURSE OF STUDY.
• Purchase or borrow standard textbooks or perhaps experimental materials – preferably accompanied with audio, visual, video and/or online ancillaries. Use them as instructed, step by step; make note of how the suggested procedures work for you and others.
•  Alternatively, devise your own methods or techniques for presentation, comprehension checks, logistics, individual and interactive practice, communicative expression and assessment of progress or mastery.  Be sure to cover the essentials, either at optimal speed for everyone involved, or at a customized pace for each person or group, depending on the circumstances. Draw on other aspects of the curriculum and materials to keep everyone engaged, motivated and moving forward. Value face-to-face learning; resist wasting time on petty procedural matters. Pay careful scrutiny to how each experiment serves educators and students alike, then make the necessary tweaks.
• Make effective use of the endless variety of free or low-cost language curricula and materials available on the Internet. Among them: informational articles and “how-to” advice; comprehensive, sequenced courses at specified levels of difficulty; self-contained skills lessons; visual worksheets to print out, copy, and distribute; audio segments accompanied by pictures/text; streaming video episodes with story lines; hands-on, multi-media or interactive activities; instructional aids such as vocabulary lists or talking glossaries; puzzles to solve and games to play; and reference lists of language items to teach or learn.  These may be samples/demos of commercial programs, archived collections from public-domain or government sites, originally televised public broadcasting serials, freebie language-learning content and tools; and so on.  Try out some suggested links, too.

We have more to say on this topic but have run out of space. To learn more, please read our next blog.

FORMATS AND MEDIA TO SUIT DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLES AND KEEP STUDENTS INTERESTED

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

In contrast to didactic, teacher-centered classroom methodologies, experiential education encourages and enables students to become actively involved in the learning process. Variety is critical to the success of this approach because individuals differ in their primary learning styles, the modes of receiving or processing stimuli that work best for them. Using materials and techniques designed to fit auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and/or tactile learning styles, whether simultaneously or sequentially, make it much more likely that the learning process will be successful.  

Of course, introducing variety can also help prevent learners from tuning out. There are a number of available product formats that have been shown to work optimally in almost all teaching/learning scenarios, e.g., for individuals and groups, short or long-term study sessions.

Practically-oriented student textbooks, worktexts and workbooks not only tell readers what they need to know but also guide them in putting what they learn to best use. These materials tend to begin with pedagogical explanations and examples, then provide controlled exercises to illustrate salient points, move on with communicative or expressive practice exercises, and end with summaries and “beyond-the-text” suggestions. Manuals that target specific sub-skills such as pronunciation, spelling, or vocabulary usually contain tasks to complete, get feedback on and review.

LANGUAGE FOCUS – SIMPLE TO COMPLEX

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

Infants produce language at its most elementary - crying sounds like “neeeh,” “owhh,” “hhhe-e-e-h,” “eairrr” and “waaaaa!”  Little by little, they learn to understand the sounds made by others, then the sounds combined into actual words and finally, can grasp the meanings of phrases and sentences in their native language; by their very nature, human beings begin with the basics, gradually rising to levels of ever greater complexity.  

Language education usually follows this pattern. Subject to the limitations and/or requirements of its overriding philosophy or approach, a language course or curriculum designed for beginners is likely to begin with aural/oral lessons regarding sounds - phonemic awareness and pronunciation of commonly used words.  Vocabulary acquisition begins early and continues throughout the language-learning process. Progressing from basic through intermediate to advanced levels of fluency requires attention to grammatical forms, patterns, and rules, as learners come to comprehend and produce connected discourse in conversations, discussions, presentations and other forms of oral communication.

Instruction in written English can start with the English alphabet, usually with the names and order of the 26 letters. The next step would be phonics, (the correlations between the printed letters and the 40 or more sounds they represent), followed by decoding when reading and spelling when writing, and then by learning to read for meaning and to write with clarity. The process doesn’t, however, end there. For most people, language acquisition and improvement never ends.

CONTENT AND CULTURE IN CONTEXT: THE CULMINATION OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

Wikipedia defines content-based instruction (CBI) as “a significant approach in second language education . . . CBI is designed to provide second-language learners instruction in content and language.” Content-based instruction requires both native and non-native speakers to work on their pronunciation, sentence structure, vocabulary and phrasing, as well as to hone their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills naturally or automatically via exposure to stimulating content.  The nature of this subject matter might be determined by curriculum requirements or “dictated” by adult interests and needs (e.g., health, finances, professional, family and social life).

Whatever the goal, language-skills development and improvement tend to merge with content and “culture” (i.e., relevant societal ideas, beliefs and values).

It is to be hoped, however, that in addition to achieving their practical goals, students will also learn how to learn and acquire a lifetime love of learning, which can be rewarding in its own right.

Posted by Erik Robelen on December 08, 2011 in Curriculum Matters

Most Teachers See the Curriculum Narrowing, Survey Finds

The bad news: most teachers believe that the implementation of No Child Left Behind has been a blow to instruction in science, social studies and art. The good news: many teachers say that students have benefited from the extra attention devoted to English and math.

Click here to read article:

blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2011/12/most_teachers_see_the_curricul.html

BLAMING THE TEACHER

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

There continues to be a great deal of buzz regarding the issue of teacher accountability. Arthur and I have always had a problem with government mandates – often receiving widespread public support - requiring that student performance be used as a benchmark for evaluating teacher competence. We believe it is just wrong-headed to hold teachers entirely or even mostly responsible for how kids perform on standardized tests.

Teachers should not be held responsible for childhood experiences that influence later academic performance. They shouldn’t be held responsible for the factors often impacting students in the classroom – poor parenting, domestic abuse, family financial problems, gang violence in their neighborhoods – there are too many to name.

Teachers shouldn’t be held responsible for crowded classrooms, the shortage of educational materials, inadequate facilities and lack of supporting programs resulting from budget cuts. And teachers shouldn’t be held responsible for the impact of competing interest groups – e.g. supporters of privatization, test providers, religious groups.

The question of what influences student performance is an extraordinarily complex one. We should be devoting our energies to understanding what factors do and don't affect performance. Until we have made some progress here, it is counter-productive as well as unjust to scapegoat teachers when student test scores don’t measure up to unreasonable expectations.   

THE LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD'S PLAN TO CUT ADULT EDUCATION

By Elaine Kirn - Rubin and Arthur Rubin

Due to budgetary considerations, the LAUSD Board of Education is debating the idea of abolishing outright the Division of Adult and Career Education. This can only be described as a disaster in the making.

This decision, which could be made as early as this month, would deny to huge numbers of people invaluable opportunities to get good jobs and keep them, which of course will affect not only them but their families. It will vastly complicate their attempts to navigate their day-to-day lives. They will be effectively locked out of American life – denied the American Dream.

Not to mention the fact that the rest of us will lose out because these people will be deprived of the chance to use their abilities to the fullest.

Talk about “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

An organization called Occupy LAUSD is in the process of organizing a campaign to pressure the LAUSD board into dropping this misconceived plan. To learn more, please go to http://www.occupylausd.org/

INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS ADD TO CULTURE AND ECONOMY

Posted by Caralee Adams on December 07, 2011

Journalist Adams points to a recent study showing that international students in the U.S. benefit local economies, contribute financial support to school programs and services, boost demand for courses in engineering and the sciences, and help build “bridges of understanding among college students and their communities…”

To read article in full, click here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2011/12/study_finds_international_students_pump.html

ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS: EARLY LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

By Elaine Kirn - Rubin and Arthur Rubin

Whether it’s English or another language other than the learners’ mother tongue, immersion in the second language is the method most likely to be effective with young people.  Instead of studying the “target language” as subject matter, children and teenagers learn content – whether it be history, geography, math, science, art, music, or something else - in the target language itself. They also hear and see—and gradually, speak and write—that same language in the course of out-of-class activities. In elementary and middle schools in the U.S. and other countries, there can be found both single-language and dual immersion programs. Building on common characteristics found in eager young learners, both kinds of curricula draw on procedures and methodologies designed to suit the natural inclinations of the recipients. Regardless of students’ individual abilities, interests and learning styles, language acquisition becomes part and parcel of the daily routine.

Whether it is in—or targets—learners’ first, second, or third languages, there are several reasons to provide language instruction in pre-schools, the lower grades and middle schools. First of all, it is during these early years that the brain’s chief learning pathways develop; these include reactions to sight, sound, taste, smell, touch and doing. Therefore, for the young, using sensory stimuli in “enriched environments” and play are likely to be most effective.

Moreover, because the “emotional brain” stores memory, learning is easier if it is fun; after all, the “door to learning is emotion.”  Neurons have to receive stimulation to grow in the cerebellum; if not, they die.  And thinking about and in language develops along with the multiple “varieties of intelligence,” not only the linguistic but also the logical, mathematical, musical, spatial, visual, kinesthetic, social, emotional and natural.  For these and other reasons, youthful language learning works best when it includes visuals, rhythm, movement, touching, relaxation, connecting, reflecting and other life experiences which “turn the whole world into a classroom.”   

Fostering language development in young learners can and should be a joyous pursuit for parents, teachers, tutors and helpers, who, by the way, are themselves likely to improve their language skills during the process.